blAck bIrd
by Aki Vos
Summary: This is BL. Sasu/Naru, AU in America. Romance, drama, comedy, someone gave Deidara a very large gun... all sorts of stuff going on. There's a better description on the first chapter.
1. Different

Two viewpoints rule over a college town, Quantity and Quality. Mainly it's a college thing but there are two high school boys pulled in, opposites abound. One working for Quality, the other spying on Quantity, Naruto and Sasuke finally get a chance to speak to each other after years and years of silence, and than it comes out... Sasuke had fallen in love with Naruto long ago. Can his love survive an impending war?

* * *

The buildings were set two hundred feet apart, the red bricks in the same pattern with white sandstone outlining the doors. There were two slight differences in the buildings themselves, the first is that when you split them down the middle at the equidistance point they were perfectly symmetrical making them each others twin opposites. The second was that one read Higgins Medical Building, 1700 Building and the other read Wright Science Building, 1800 Building.

In between the two buildings were approximately 400 pissed off and unrelenting college students facing the Science building chanting against the experimentations that were going on. In the front of the crowd with his back to the building and a giant megaphone in his hand was one high school Junior. His hair was wetted down so it didn't puff out everywhere as it had and his bright orange tee-shirt was reading 'experience life' in a bold font. With two bright blue eyes and an enthusiastic smiled he had been leading their side of the movement for four solid weeks. He raised his fist and shouted into the megaphone.

"**Quality over Quantity**!" He roared and looked up smiling as the crowd began chanting it, the four hundred fists pumping the air in a simultaneous movement. He finally turned to the building and looked up at the third floor where there was a row of body length windows and saw the Dean of Genetic Sciences standing with a few of his loyal students. They were obviously unhappy.

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"They're utterly annoying, Madara." Growled a heavily pierced man in a pair of ripped jeans, ripped white tee-shirt and a brand new lab coat while scratching his freshly shaven face. He inhaled through his nose promptly and walked over to the window and looked out. "Can we borrow some of them for our experiments?"

"Sorry, Nagato. Afraid that's illegal… if we get caught." Madara said calmly adjusting the black silk suit and walked around behind his mahogany desk and sat down running one of his old hands through matted down hair. He opened a folder and pulled out a picture, "so who's this kid that's leading all the protests?"

"His name's Naruto Uzumaki, he's an orphan that goes to West View, he's only 16." Deidara said brushing his hair to one side and moving uncomfortably foreword with another folder and setting it on his desk. Deidara was the law student Madara had enlisted, much against his will, to help them out. "We've also found out he's living with Jiraiya."

"Who?" Madara quickly closed the folder and opened up the new folder. He skimmed over the contents and raised his eyes looking for an answer.

"He's the new Dean of Modern Literature. He's the one who Konan keeps hitting on." Sasori muttered quickly from off the top of another desk in the room. Sasori was one of the professors that worked under Madara, he specialized in natural genetic mutations.

Konan made a dark face from Nagato's side and was about to step foreword but Nagato stuck a hand out and kept her in place. She stop trying and let her hair fall back some from the force. Her recently black died hair was a sacrifice she had to make to keep her position, but then she saw what Kisame had done so she had been pissed off lately. "Konan stop it, we all know you have a crush on him, get over it." Konan went quiet, especially since she was currently dating the vicious researcher who had just admitted she was being unfaithful.

"I think this is all getting a little dangerous," Deidara muttered quietly causing all the room to turn to him and stare with judging eyes as he thought carefully and slowly. "If the media gets a hold of this, they may side with the Quality and we'll lose all our standing."

"Yeah, but we have the Christians, they wanted longer life, and we're trying to provide it for them." Kakuzu laughed and was suddenly jabbed by his partner who was in the same identical lab coat he was in. He made sour pus and growled deeply. "If you're going to go on about how I messed up some religious shit, Hidan, I'll kill you."

"All I'm saying…" Was all Hidan got out before having to dodge a fist coming in his direction. Hidan ended up falling down to the floor, his back still up supported by the worked out arms. Hidan laughed and got up in somewhat good spirits. "Fuck! If you keep hurting all your lab partners were not going to have anyone left, you dumb shit!"

"All of you quiet!" Nagato fumed at the insolence of the grad students around him. He walked smoothly to the large windows and leaned his head down, pressing a calmly hand on the window. The man turned around to Madara who was looking up at him. "Let's scare him, not much for now, we don't want to make this public by committing a felony, we wouldn't get very far."

Nagato swiveled his head to the tallest among them who had recently died his hair a bright ocean blue and the other who was only here because his uncle Madara had made him show up. He wasn't even in the program, didn't even care about the movement, but he was highly persuasive and it was a valued quality. Madara closed the files and smiled at Kisame, "You're a very sick and twisted man, what do you suggest, Mr. Hoshigaki?"

Kisame smiled through his bright, white teeth and slowly suggested a favorite prank of his. "Let's put a dissected monkey carcass on his stoop and light it on fire. We can use the removed intestine and decorate the surroundings with them; I personally like to droop them around the trees while they're still bloody." Kisame looked around the room at some of the disgusted faces and then turned to what he considered to be his best friend.

Itachi's mind was far away at the moment, he was majoring in travel and culture so day dreaming helped him remember the different views. Right now, he was in Morocco trading a goat for a new shirt. He awoke with a nudge. Dreamily he turned to Kisame and made a 'hm' sound. "You have anything to add, Itachi? You can be pretty ruthless."

"Yea, I hate you all and I want a Big Mac." Itachi turned back out the window where the crowds were clapping in time to a nice rhythm. His gaze through a pair of blood red contacts saw and met the gaze of the young protest leader. 'He can't be much older then Sasuke…' Itachi relaxed back in the chair and continued looking out with an emotionless face and heard the news. They were going to set this Uzumaki kid's house on fire to get him to stop participating in the movement. It was then he heard that he would be going to school tomorrow at West View. 'That's good, Sasuke goes there.'

Itachi let his mind melt into the chanting and found himself back in Morocco complaining about the quality of the shirt and how it had a cow print on it.

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The demonstration finished an hour after the meeting. Naruto raised his wrist and wiped it habitually against his nose and smiled. The college students cleared away leaving just him and the office aid of the Dean of Medical Science, Shizune. Shizune smiled and turned to him putting her dress jacket back on, "You really have a gift getting people motivated, maybe you should become a politician?"

"Too complex for me, a community leader would be cool though. I'd kind of like to be a teacher." Naruto said thinking about things and dropped both his arms, the mega phone dangling from its red wrist tie. He stretched his back and yawned, "I might have to get better grades though; C's and D's just don't cut it sometimes."

"You don't have a B or an A in anything?" Shizune asked surprised as they began walking over to the medical building. Naruto shook his head slightly without ever losing his smile. Instead of complaining about it Naruto stopped, picked up a piece of trash, and ask himself out loud why people would litter two feet from a trash can. Shizune shook her head. "Don't you have anything you're good at? I'm good with writing."

"Dodge ball?" Naruto cheekily remembered and looked up to see the Dean of Medical Science and the Dean of Modern Literature looking at them as they walked up. Tsunade, the Dean of Medical Science was in her normal light green suit with he hair put back into a tight bun. The Dean of Modern Literature, and Naruto's current legal guardian was a buff man in khakis, a blue dress shirt and a tan tie on with the faint shading of a girl dancing on it. Naruto looked up at him and scratched his head with his free hand. "How'd we do, Jiraiya?"

"Eh…" Jiraiya muttered moving a flat hand back and forth, "It had its high moments. You need more chants. Maybe if someone learned how to rap that would spice things up."

"Yeah, I'll just call P Diddy and be right on that." Naruto jested and strolled over to stand next to Tsunade. "One of the students asked me when you were going to have a seminar over the Quality versus Quantity issue, I told him there probably wouldn't be one since you and Uchiha are practically ripping each other's guts out."

Shizune quickly put a small, manicured hand over her mouth and began giggling. "You should see them in the same room as each other; it's like kidnagarden-ers who blame each other for losing the toy. And that time they both wanted the last pudding in the teachers' lounge." Shizune said dropping until she noticed Tsunade's look. "Not that you act like a kidnagarden-er in anyway Ms. Senju and it was entirely his fault that the pudding was annihilated."

"Right." It was all that came out of Tsunade's mouth. Shizune looked like she was about to apologize more but Tsunade quickly interrupted her. "Come on Shizune, let's get back to work finding away to sell the Quality theory." Shizune said goodbye to Jiraiya avoiding letting him hug her. She did however put an arm around Naruto telling him to do better in class and briskly took after her mentor.

"What are the theories again? I keep forgetting them and people try to tell me about them and I have to nod and say that I have a new novel to get back to." Jiraiya laughed as he began to walk back to the 300 building where his office was. He sighed and looked at Naruto smiling. "Why can't you guys make it simple one lined ideas like 'pears are a fruit.'"

For a second Naruto's deviant side got a hold of him quickly and he raised the megaphone and pressed the button. "**It doesn't work like that**."

Jiraiya jumped a bit and Naruto lowered the device from his mouth and laughed. "Quality is the view that science should be used to make our lives better. They want to make the pain go away and stay away so you can get back to your life and do as you please in the natural time allotted by the human body.

"Quantity is the same view. They want to increase the life span so you can live longer; the ultimate goal is to make people immortal so they never die." Naruto sighed and looked to the ground kicking a pebble along the sidewalk with one of his sneakers, "what I want to know is how this is helping me pass physics."

"What side are we on again?" Jiraiya asked as they found the large literature building. Naruto stopped and gave him a 'are you actual asking that' look. Jiraiya laughed slightly and shrugged. "I'm an old forgetful man."

"Really?" Naruto paused for a second looking at the teacher; very slowly a slow grin crept across his face. "In your classes, how many of your female students wore shorts today?"

"Fifty-two." Jiraiya cooed dreamily and began to remember what he could. Naruto rolled his eyes dramatically and walked ahead calling bullshit on him loudly. "Hey, what side is it anyways?"

"Quality. What's the use of living forever if you're unhappy?" Naruto asked turning his head back towards him, "I'm surprised you haven't used that theme yet in one of your books."

"I'm a romance guy. I write romance novels." Jiraiya reminded him sticking a finger up in the air to make his point. He took a deep breath in and waved his hands over the area to display the nature around them. "I write beauty, and peace. What's more beautiful then a young woman just coming into her own? She's going to…"

Naruto raised the megaphone again and turned it on interrupting him, "**you write soft core porn with a bunch of dialogue in it**." The sentence got the attention of everyone around them. Jiraiya rapidly stole the megaphone away and tucked it under his arm. He easily kept up his stride until he realized he was dragging Naruto with the piece of equipment.

"Oh, sorry, Kid-o." The dean undid the tie and kept walking taking the megaphonewith him.

"Hey that's mine!" Naruto yelled rubbing his wrist. "What are you going to do with a megaphone?"

"Putting it in my office. I'm confiscating it." Jiraiya kept moving and shouted at some of the literature students who were sitting in a tree.

"I don't even go here!" Naruto knew his excuse was futile but tried anyway. Jiraiya shrugged again, Naruto ran both his hands through his hair and didn't think on it too much more, he'd get it back tonight anyway after Jiraiya passed out. Naruto tossed his hands down and began walking in the opposite direction. His house was only thirty blocks from here, if he wanted to, he could run that in record time but he had money in his pocket and his stomach was empty.

The sidewalks were full of students. Every single one had a different banner on, white for Quality and red for Quantity. They remained packed in there little groups until he hit Carpenter street, the end of campus, the street his high school was on.

Naruto quickly looked at his watch reading just after six. He could go home any time he liked, but Sai would be getting out of art club and Sakura would be getting out of her wrestling practice. Detouring to the school it felt too quiet for his likes. Naruto shoved his hands in his pockets wishing he had invested in the iPod instead of the PS3, but then quickly changed his mind remembering how much he loved to play video games.

As he came to the school and saw Sakura walking out of the school with Lee who was still wrapped up around the neck from an incident with a 325 Lbs. wrestler from Greenpoint. Naruto shoved two fingers in his mouth and whistled from across the street. Sakura quickly looked up and ran away from Lee waving at him. She dashed across the empty street with her bag in arms and stopped in front of him brushing some of her pink-dyed hair out of her face. "Hey, how'd the protest go?"

"Same as always. Jiraiya confiscated my megaphone otherwise I would have just set off the horn." He said unhappily. "Have you seen Sai yet? I've got money, I figured we could go out for pizza."

"He's still in, want to go kidnap him?" She offered smiling through her glossed lips. Sakura began to turn not taking her light green eyes off him, Naruto shook his head. Sakura let out a small clicking noise from her tongue. "Why not?"

"The last four times we went in there, we had to pose for paintings for like two hours. Let's just go ourselves, more pizza for me." Naruto joked and began to walked away not even noticing the boy in bondage pants and a giant black sweater hike past them towards the college. Naruto and Sakura laughed loudly in their own conversation. It was clear to Sasuke that they didn't recognize his existence even if he was a giant black blot on the white pristine sidewalks.

The boy smiled. "Good," he whispered to himself, the edges of his lips curled happily. Stopping a few yards away letting them leave, a half-tanned hand went through his hair and he took a deep breath in catching their scents. Sasuke knew Naruto's aroma very well, it was a mix of an expensive aftershave, the mint gum he typically chewed, and the slight hint of perspiration. Sasuke loved that scent.

He was suddenly hit in the side of the head with a small pebble that dropped down and remained on his shoulder until one of his large hands brushed it off with agitation. Turning his head the young Uchiha saw a bleach blond boy in a similar outfit to his. The difference was a huge water bottle in one hand and a large rock in the other which, he assumed, if the pebble had failed would have been tossed. "What is it now, Suigetsu, I have to go yell at Madara?"

"Your brother's looking for you, Sasuke. I'm supposed to take you back to HQ." He smiled through his filed teeth. It was possibly one of the coolest things Suigetsu had ever done in Sasuke's eyes. Now he was a piranha instead of just acting like one.

"It's not HQ, it's just an old house we broke into." Sasuke said uneventfully and walked across the street and stood by him. "And it's a piece of shit besides the bathrooms."

"Hey, Karin and Jugo have worked hard on that place making it livable, and not to mention yours truly had to fix all the plumbing and painted all the rooms while pretty boy went off gallivanting in Europe just because Uncle Madara had to go on a book tour." Suigetsu stuck out his tongue quickly with his face a tad bit angry.

"Feeling better?"

"Yea…" Suigetsu smiled and took in some fresh air. "Well let's get going, I don't really feel at ease letting Kisame in HQ with only Itachi to watch him, members or not."

"Did Itachi say what it's about?" Sasuke turned and looked him in the eyes. "He usually never comes over to Black Bird."

"Nope, just said to move your ass." Suigetsu said and unscrewed the cap and took a giant drink. He lowered the bottle putting the cap back on with a twisted grin and blew a lock of hair out of his mouth. "Coach says I get to shave my head if we get to state. Cool huh?"

"You'd look funny bald." Sasuke said and laughed at his friend, "Like a withered old man, or really dehydrated."

"Shut up, you fag." Suigetsu fumed punching him somewhat hard in the shoulder. Sasuke grabbed his shoulder and rubbed it with a sour ting to his face, "I punched in the wrong place didn't I? Is that where the new tattoo's at?"

"Yeah," Sasuke quickly handed off his backpack; his arms stretched out in front of him and the sweater pulled off over his head and down his biceps to show a giant black and white eagle on his shoulder. "Took three hours of begging Jugo to do it and three hours of sitting there getting it done. Well worth it, was up until… Maybe four this morning."

"So that's why you didn't show up until lunch, and the wrong lunch on top of that." Suigetsu grabbed his arm just under the eagle's talons and examined the artwork carefully. "Jugo just keeps getting better, but still, you'll end up failing."

"You're lucky I showed up at all. I should have just stayed home; today was a waste of effort. Probably should be taking it carefully with the ink, I haven't gotten one this big before." Sasuke said looking at it. He smiled and flipped his wrist over showing a simple, small black bird, "no matter what, the first is always the favorite."

"I can't wait 'til spring of our senior year, after swimming's over. I'm going to get a huge something all over my back. You all were lucky, you got yours on your wrist, Jugo has his on his calf, Karin's got her's above her tit, me… on my hip so it can be covered at all times because I'm not allowed to have tattoos for swimming." Suigetsu said and they began walking. Sasuke decided to leave the sweater off and tied it around his waist tightly. Suigetsu handed him his bag back and they began walking towards the slums of the big city. "Did you know how uncomfortable I was with Jugo that close to…Eh!"

"You ever think about quitting swimming? I'm sure you could pass the equivalence exam. Madara can get you into the college. Who really wants to waste time going day in and day out, listening to teachers? Especially that freaking gym teacher, what'd he change his name to, Might Guy?" Sasuke grunted in disgust.

"I was thinking about it, but then I remembered that I'd have to put up with your uncle. I think I'll just suffer in a boiling pot of feces before I do that." Sasuke burst out laughing and turned to see where they were. They were on the corner of Raven Street, the building all crumbling around them. They picked up their pace and crossed the street avoiding the prostitutes that were coming out and the occasional druggie shooting up.

Nearly running for five blocks and came upon a grey shingled house with a door in the front and several different windows on three different levels, every visible entrance was covered with assortments of rotting wood. At the relief of seeing the decaying shingles Sasuke smiled. "Finally, Black Bird house."


	2. The Black Birds

Black Bird house, as it stands, is an old boarding house that was abandoned in the late seventies. Over the years it has been home to prostitutes and druggies until the city boarded it up. Four people, when running from the law, entered a neighboring abandoned building and found a large steel door to the old boarding house which was easily lock-picked. Over the past three years the floors had been replaced, walls fixed up and the boards on the house were redone stronger then originally.

The outside was cast in grey shale over lapping scales giving the entire building a foreboding feeling. The front steps were removed with bits and pieces of the cement lying about in random places, most of it having been kicked about at various times. It was the perfect hideaway for a group of outcasts and the Black Birds knew that well. In fact, they took pride in the knowing that three sixteen year olds and a mid-twenty-something were able to keep themselves together through anything. Plus, there was also the fact they were able to keep themselves in a good living condition seeing as they were all runaways or orphans or both.

Sasuke and Suigetsu entered the small brick house to the side of their dwelling and walked through the graphitized halls and turned around a corner descending broken stairs. Sasuke landed first and walked over to the steel door and pulled a grey key out of his pocket. He stuck it in and turned the key and the latch unlocked. Sasuke returned the key to his pocket and opened the large door with one of his large hands and let Suigetsu enter before him. Sasuke spun around and entered closing the door tightly behind him.

The basement of the Black Bird home was not really a basement but a den. There were three couches; a lime green one with a large rip on the back, a red one that had a pull out bed, and a blue plaid one Suigetsu said was his. On the green couch sat Jugo; he was relaxed back with his feet up on an old table he had rebuilt from the junk yard he helps manage on weekends. Jugo looked up at them and pulled the joint from his mouth blowing out a small stream of smoke. "Your brother is in your room along with Hoshigaki."

"'Kay." Sasuke said and tossed his back pack off his shoulders and onto the table. He opened his bag and pulled out a glass bottle of SoBe green tea. Sasuke flicked his wrist quickly and offered it to Jugo. "Consider it thanks for the tattoo."

"You're very welcome; it was the first time I got to tattoo someone's entire deltoid." Jugo reached a hand out and took the bottle with a refined motion. From his throat came a cheerful 'mmmm'; the giant quickly undid the cap and took a long sip then set the drink down to his side. "It's so relaxing."

"It's why I got it." Sasuke began to make his way up the stairs alone leaving Suigetsu downstairs. After trekking up the tall cement basement stairs Sasuke had reached the first floor to here the small sound of noise. He turned down a newly wall papered section of small flying black birds and walked into the kitchen where the noise increased dramatically.

Sitting in the center of the kitchen with books sprawled over the broken tiles was a thin red head with her hair up in a pencil. Around her neck lay her head phones blaring out a soft, bitter sweet melody. She had her glasses drooping down her nose as she was reading her book and lip sinking along with the song. Sasuke stopped and walked slowly over and knelt down by her and looked at the page she was on in her biology book. Lifting her gaze she saw him and blushed slightly. "Hey Sasuke."

"Need help with anything, Karin?" Sasuke asked skimming over the paragraphs on fetal development. He quickly recognized everything having already taken several different classes, not to mention all freshman year he snuck into Madara's classes instead of his own. Karin dragged out a small sticky notepad and placed a note down scribbling down 'study'.

"Not really... it's just remembering all this for the test tomorrow." She took her right pointer finger and bit on it trying to come up with resources. "I may have to borrow the back on Suigetsu neck again."

"Cheating won't help, just work harder at it. Cheating will end up on a permanent record, and if you have a record, your options are limited for college." Sasuke stood up and stretched out his back with a loud sigh. He slowly took off turning the corner and went up the creaky old stairs to the second floor. The second floor was dark, you had to already know where you're going or you got lost easily. Sasuke knew all the rooms by assignment. First door on the left; Suigetsu's room. First door on the right; empty guest room, sometimes Kisame borrows it. Second door on the left; his.

Sasuke grabbed the brass hand on the white door and turned it fearlessly. The air in his room was stale and smelled like the cheap aftershave his brother wore. That was mainly because his brother was sitting on his bed reading on of the travel brochures Sasuke had attained in Paris. Standing in the corner next to the bed was Kisame examining a large knife Sasuke had stolen from a hunting store. Kisame looked up at the teenager, "you've got good taste in cutting equipment."

"Suigetsu's the one who told me to lift it. He has the good taste." Sasuke walked in and closed the door quietly behind him to see his brother's dark eyes meet his. "What's our beloved uncle up to this time? I hope it's something new, I think him raping and pillaging would be interesting."

"He's not a Viking, though he's a stubborn as one. Bad enough temper too..." Itachi grumbled absent mindedly. Finishing the last sentence of the brochure he set it down on Sasuke's side table and moved foreword sitting on the edge of the bed. He looked around quickly and smiled. "I like what you've done with you're room, the travel posters are nice."

"Thanks, of course, Madara bought them for me when he took me over seas. I just got around to putting them up last week. I guess he's useful sometimes after all." The little brother moved across and sat down on the bed next to big brother and waited for something to happen.

"Uzumaki, you know a kid by that name?" Itachi asked softly; Sasuke's face changed to a little surprise before he settled down. Sasuke nodded the locks around his face following suit. "He's been leading protests at the college, working for Dean Senju. Uncle Madara's beginning to view him as a threat to Quantity, Nagato's talking of disposing of him, and Kisame's trying to back off the violence with a monkey carcass."

Sasuke shot a quickly glance at the tall blue haired man who gave a bright flash of a smile. Kisame mouthed 'intestines everywhere!' and gave a thumbs up. "You're all nuts, you guys know that right?"

"We need you to keep an eye on him Sasuke, or better yet, can you bring him to me tomorrow so I can tell him about it. I don't think you actually want in on the Quantity secrets." Itachi said and leaned back against the wall his hands stretching behind him. Itachi's blue shirt rose a little bit above his jeans showing his white stomach. He noticed and looked down. "I need to tan... Anyway, tomorrow I'll be at Kisame's, he's got a new TV."

"Plasma, floats on the wall, it's awesome." Kisame said in lust over the object. "Plus, there's a new special on ancient weaponry."

Sasuke turned his gaze back to his big brother. "So then, what's Madara up to? I hope it's nothing too vile." Sasuke snickered and Kisame laughed to himself. They all suddenly looked at the door and heard a slight knock. Sasuke pressed a hand to the blue sheets and lifted his body off the bed. He opened the door only wide enough to see who it was. On the other side was Suigetsu trying to pry the door open wider; Sasuke's grip on the door was unflinching. "We're busy, what is it?"

"Jugo's picking up fast food, what do you want?" He said quickly and gave up on opening the door anymore then the few inches that were being allotted. Sasuke shrugged and Suigetsu just shrugged his shoulders in return. "Do you want anything or not?"

From behind Sasuke Itachi desperately yelled, "I want a Big Mac! I've been trying to get one for three hours!" Sasuke quickly rolled his eyes to turn around and give his brother a dirty look. Kisame stood off the wall a bit and reached his right arm behind his to pull a black leather wallet out of his kakis. Flipping the tri-fold open he pulled out a twenty and held it over Sasuke's head to Suigetsu, "I want five fillet 'o fish."

"Gotcha." Suigetsu said shoving the bill away in his pocket. He raised his eyes to Sasuke's as Kisame stepped back into his corner. The line of sight from the young Uchiha quickly moved to the floor, "anything or are we skipping dinner?" Suigetsu's words were quiet and for that Sasuke was thankful. He just shook his head just slightly enough for the boy to see. "Right, we'll be back soon. Later guys."

"Later." Kisame and Itachi synchronized. Itachi sat foreword and sighed as Sasuke closed the door and moved back over to the bed sitting down and pulling his legs up around him. The elder Uchiha's head jerked towards the door as his eyes turned to Kisame. The large man got the picture quickly; Kisame knew to stay out of matters between the brothers. He took five heavy steps across the old wood floor and opened the door.

Sasuke, looking over to his brother, heard the door close. Itachi turned to his brother about to open his mouth. Sasuke swallowed quickly and focused on a sentence to spit out before he would get talked to, "no, I'm not anorexic, not trying to lose weight."

"Good, saves that line of questioning." Itachi said and scooted next to his brother who was hiding against the headboard and the wall. Without trying Itachi had his brother locked in one place. He moved closer to the distressed teen and pulled in his legs copying Sasuke. One of the thin arms stretched over Sasuke's back and draped across his shoulder. "So, what is wrong? You're not sick again are you?"

"No…" Sasuke sighed heavily and turned his face towards Itachi, "I refused to fight again." Sasuke stretched out his legs and lifted his shirt up showing giant black bruises that were swelling in a mass around his body. "Punched five times, kicked a couple, and than someone had something else. I think it was maybe a crowbar or a pipe. As long as it's just my stomach, I don't fight back and they know it."

Sasuke lowered his shirt down and moved his legs back into position covering his body like a shield. His arms wrapped them and he pulled in tightly. Itachi shook his head in confusion and a slight bit of disappointment. "You don't have to let this happen, you're allowed to fight back if they attack first. There's no reason to come home black and blue."

Sasuke's head turned away towards a picture with the Effie Tower on it at sundown. Itachi turned to him trying to get his attention and held up a hand. "You're a black belt in karate." His thumb went out followed by his pointer finger. "You've done kick boxing for three years, not to mention you're a state champion Muay Thai fighter." Itachi put his hand down and smiled, "plus, you can become quite violent when you're mad."

"Yeah, shut up." Sasuke shouted loudly. Now being pissed off he broke his shoulder from the weak grip and moved forward getting off the bed with a struggle. Itachi watched as his brother sulked slowly from the room, his graceful figure disappearing into the dark hallway. Sasuke wandered down the hall, his hand tracing against the right wall until it broke away to a redone staircase leading to the third floor. As Sasuke strolled up the wood stairs he looked up. The one thing Sasuke requested was a place where he could sit by himself, this was that place. There was a small landing with several pieces of paper and pencils and from above it was lit by the sinking sun through a small circular ceiling window.

He passed it slowly; the pictures he had drawn making a slideshow in his head. Almost off of them were of a familiar blonde boy. As he finished ascending the stairs a wall of perfume hit him hard. The first door to the left was Karin's. The door was painted purple with large white flowers on it; she thought it was the cutest thing ever and everyone else thought it was to ward unwanted guys off.

Sasuke opened her door and entered the bedroom showing purple and white everywhere. With a hand he brushed the strong odor of perfume aside and maneuvered through her room to her private bathroom. Karin had once threatened everyone that if she ever caught anyone in her bathroom, she'd personally cut off their dicks. It was a few days later that she told Sasuke it didn't apply to him. That was within a few minutes of when he had found out she had a crush on him. He didn't really mind her seeing him naked, he didn't like her and refused to touch her in the fondest of ways so what was the big deal? She was to chicken to do anything to get him.

Sasuke quickly stripped off the black tank top and set it on the floor next to the purple bathmat. Untying the black sweater he looked around the white bathroom and scrunched his face. She had sprayed the perfume in the room too.

He adored the privacy of her bathroom since it was separate. Jugo or Suigetsu couldn't just freely walk in, but he thought the guy bathroom was better, it was grey and bleak. He'd used the guy bathroom before but was always scare one of his friends would have to piss. He couldn't help his nature; Sasuke didn't want to lust after a roommate and let alone the only two guys that knew who he was and still hung around him anyway.

Sasuke remember asking both of them once why they hung around him. Suigetsu gave him a thumbs up and smiled through his teeth. 'Because you scare small children and old hags without trying.'

Jugo answer was more thought out. 'Why not? It's not like your seriously going to hit on me or anything. Plus, were all outcast, we need to stick together, no matter the differences. It's what makes us Black Birds.'

He quickly undid his bondage pants and tossed them off while slipping his shoes off skillfully with only his feet. As he finished stripping he stepped over the ledge of the bathtub and sat down on the white surface with his knees back up to his chest. His left arm reached out and grabbed the silver handle. He yanked it down twisting his wrist showing the small black bird. A smile graced his face; the warm water spilled out of the faucet and hit the white tub stopper to spill over onto the area. Sasuke raised his wrist to his face and looked at the little black bird. 'I'm not an outcast anymore.'

Sasuke waited for a minute until he finally accepted one simple fact: he was alone. His legs stretched out the length on the container and his back relaxed against the cool side letting his arms fall down across his chest. For a second he closed his eyes, the water slowly rising against his body. Breathing steadily with a calm intent he became tranquil, just as he needed.

Plenty of things passed through his head, the white walls of Karin's bathroom, her bedroom, the heavy lilac perfume that decorated it white slowly changed to the expensive tint of after shave. It suddenly mixed with mint. The smell was intoxicating to him; he was somewhere warm and there was something soft besides him, the glow of beautiful golden hair in the morning sun. The hair moved and showed the overly sun drenched skin and a waking blue eye. Sasuke lurch up, eye blinking open quickly to find that he was still alone. His breathing had changed to rapid. He could feel himself swell and he began to try to think of different things.

He tried and tried, everything lead back to Naruto. Sasuke leaned back ignoring the pain on his stomach and reached a hand to grab himself tenderly. He looked over at the door, he hadn't locked it. He wished he had now. Before going any further he raised a foot and turned off the running water letting the last few drips come down. He settled himself down and tried to focus on what was at hand.

Sasuke had always been nervous at the thought of masturbation. Ever since kids are little they're told not to, and Sasuke was no different. He wondered if that was just for little kids so they wouldn't go around with their hands in their pants. The healthiness of masturbation had been proved over and over again in books and articles and Sasuke sometimes hoped that would satisfy the little guilty center in his head. He still wasn't very comfortable with the idea always afraid he would get caught like it was a dirty little secret. His fingers moved down the shaft gently and he stopped. He sighed; he still couldn't do it even if he was alone.

He rolled over onto his side facing the wall and tried to relax and calm down, a distraction anything. His head remained empty besides the nerve endings telling him his stomach was quite injured and he wanted to feel the rush of a good fuck. Sasuke's remained steady until he heard the clicking of heels enter the bedroom, Karin was upstairs. He quickly checked himself; he had gone limp finally. The slight knock at the door gave a seconds warning before the red hair opened the door and walked in. She took two steps foreword and turned closing the door with a manicured set of nails. "Hiding up here?"

"It's a good place to hide." Sasuke admitted between the two of them. "Besides you and me, no one comes in here." Sasuke sat up a bit and watched as Karin's hand held out an unopened pack of cigarette and a silver lighter with a skull on it. "Jugo pick these up for me?"

"Yeah, well, you did tell him you were out." Karin said and walked over to the wall and pulled a small silver bead chain opening a vent to the outside world. "Make sure you clear the room out of smoke. I don't understand why you want cancer so badly." She said grabbing the doorknob, Karin's eyes shifted back through her glasses to him as he opened the pack. "Do you really want to go through chemo?"

"Actually, I'm hoping on the slow painful death." Sasuke joked, Karin thought it was highly unfunny and left the room quickly slamming the door behind her. Sasuke pulled out a filtered cigarette and stuck it in his mouth; his hand flipped open the lighter's top and a flame appeared by itself. 'I love lighters like this,' he thought to himself and lit the white end of the cigarette happily.

The lighter and the pack he dropped down a feet inches from the tub. Sasuke inhaled and pulled the cigarette out blowing a large puff out. Sasuke was an experienced smoker, he'd only been smoking for a few months, but he could blow smoke rings better then Jugo could. It didn't count that Jugo was working with a different leaf though. He put the cigarette back to his lips and tried to focus on something more important that out doing a pot head.

How the hell was he going to get Naruto to come with him after school? They hadn't spoken since middle school, and that was when Sasuke last fought someone. Sasuke had beaten Naruto up for no reason at all other than he was pissed off and the blond had laughed when he fell. Naruto had been forced to go to the emergency room and was ICU for two days. Sasuke had been suspended for a month which he spent in juvenile detention where he met Suigetsu; however, he knew that Naruto didn't hate him all that much since it had happened right after his parents had died. For a minute, he had wondered if Itachi had forgotten that incident at school. "Damn it…"


	3. Kidnapped

Naruto's Class schedule for Tuesdays is as following: second block – physics, fourth block – study hall, sixth block – gym, lunch, eighth block – creative writing. He attended every class, always in his seat at least a minute before the bell rang for class to start. Naruto did his homework and tried his hardest in all his classes. He was diligent; would help if anyone asked. He had a few after school things to do, like student council and the occasional sport. Baseball season was coming up soon and he would be on the varsity team again.

Sasuke's schedule was a little harder; second block – be in pre-calculus long enough to gather/ turn in work and leave to sit in on theater, fourth block – study hall/ smoke in bathroom, lunch, sixth block – help teach AP anatomy, eighth block – creative writing. Sasuke would show up when he felt like it and was highly considering dropping out, he could take the equivalence test held monthly and pass with one of the highest scores they've ever seen. Sometimes when he was bored on Monday's he would attend the lessons taught by Sasori on genetics up at the college. Sasuke understood most of the material better then a lot of his students and would be allowed to help them. All the while he was getting a free college education.

Creative writing was the only class in their entire high school careers they had together. The other couldn't understand why they were even taking it in the first place. Sasuke was a far better writer then the class would ever know and Naruto was so terrible it was rare for him to get a C.

Every story Naruto wrote was the same and constantly received the lowest score of the class. It was a blatant love story with the same three to four characters in similar settings. The only time Naruto excelled was when they were writing and delivering public speeches.

Sasuke however did everything perfectly; his stories were emotion, beauty, darkness, love and despair with an undertone of hope, sensuality or luck. He was so good in fact, the school newspaper had been after him for a while, but he always refused claiming the newspaper was stupid and worthless except for the comic Sai drew monthly. Whenever Sasuke was supposed to deliver a speech in class he'd hand the typed speech off to the teacher, turned to the class and simply said 'I don't feel like giving a speech, deal with it,' and sit back down or leave. He still got a B.

Today in creative writing their teacher, Kakashi Hatake, was making them do a free write poem about anything they wanted. The six students in the class were seated in the semi-circle glaring at their papers going 'what the hell am I going to write about?' Sasuke stared at the paper and picked up his pencil to quickly begin scribbling. Poetry had never been a strong point for him, but it would come easily enough if he had sufficient emotions about him. The problem was getting the emotion off the blond boy that sat at the other end gazing awkwardly at the paper like it was a lost treasure map.

The second person to start writing was Hinata Hyuuga after she had thoroughly chewed on her pencil. Pleasantly quite, her works were usually of still peaceful nature scenes or romantic dealings. Naruto looked at his neighbor and sighed, it wasn't long before the underclassmen in the class had begun writing as well leaving him the only one who hadn't had a good idea yet. It hit him then like a brick, a bowling ball and a slew of other heavy objects combined. He gave an absolutely stupid smile to anyone watching and collected his idea.

Naruto grabbed his pen and began scribbling down simple sentences and wrote a simple poem about a simple topic that was simply silly. He finished quickly seeing it wasn't even half a page, but there was no limit. Two minutes later, Kakashi has set down his book, it was soft core porn as Naruto would have described it, and addressed the class.

"Everyone done?" He looked around to see five of the heads nod, Sasuke was too busy drawing on the outsides edges of the sheet to nod. "Good, let's read them aloud! Naruto, you first."

Naruto smiled and stood up with his sheet of paper and began reading:

"I need a good grade in this class,

But right now I'm going to barely pass,

So give me a good grade

And I'll be on way

Or Jiraiya's going to kick my ass."

The class burst out laughing, even Sasuke snickered a bit. Kakashi smiled behind his scarf. "Usually I tell people not to swear but it made it funny. I'll give you 8 points for it." Naruto gave him a thumbs up and sat down. Kakashi marked the score down in his grade book and turned to Sasuke. "Do you feel like sharing today?"

"Not really." Sasuke said and handed the teacher his paper with art and all. "Personally, I couldn't find a right emotion for it, so no matter what, I feel it's a hallow shell of frivolous thoughts I couldn't really care to express. For the dumb people, that means I don't like it." He got several dirty looks, he didn't really care, he grew in aggressiveness and their stares were just feeding his attitude.

Kakashi read over the poem and handed it back. "Unless you read it aloud, I'll only give you a five, half of the points are class participation." Kakashi said admiring the work but not the artist. Sasuke looked at it, mulled the thought of losing five points when they only get so many points a week and sighed. He really didn't need the points though he knew they'd be having a speech on Friday and he'd only write it, that's a loss of fifty points.

Sasuke didn't stand up he just began reading it in a mildly disheartened voice.

"_Comment allez-vous_

When the heart skips

The breath thins

Eyes double take

The spirit dips

The mind spins

And the world brakes?

Confusion, reclusion, exclusion

Out of delusions and formations

Once known in step in time

In rhythms, in beat,

Your performance is less then expectation

Looked upon as crime

For a less marvelous feat.

With glare

Disappointment

All on you.

_Comment allez-vous?" _

Sasuke set the paper down, crossed his arms and grimaced at the desk muttering, "happy?" The five in the class were silent and Hinata began clapping along with two of the underclassmen.

"Ten points then." Kakashi said and wrote it down quickly turning to Hinata to continue on his weave across the students. "Hinata, let's hear your haiku."

"Okay!

Spring leaves falling down

Spiraling towards the earth

Leaving color around.

How's that?" She asked setting her page down to look nervously at the teacher.

"Well, it's another haiku, you need to try a different type of poetry. I'll give you seven." He said and continued through the three underclassmen. No one's poem could come near to touching the greatness of Sasuke's work even though he was methodically convinced it was one of his worst.

Class ended quietly as they all finished reading a set of short stories written by some American revolutionary who was convinced the only proper government was one where everyone got supported, he was a communist obviously. As the bell rang, without a surprise it was like Kakashi had disappeared into a ball of smoke as he was no where to be seen and no one ever sees him leaving. There was a theory going around that he actually jumped out the window; this has yet to be disproved to the freshmen.

Sasuke just sat patiently by the door waiting, he was normally the first one besides the teacher to be gone. The underclassmen were out the door in seconds, followed by Hinata who never brought that much to class. Naruto was usually the last who brings drink, snack, coat, and backpack and then unpacks as much as he can in the beginning of class.

Sasuke just sat there grabbing the door handle while Naruto was still packing and shut them in the class room together. Naruto heard the door and looked up to see him staring at him. "My brother wants to talk to you about the movement, it seems Madara is being stupid and wants your blood on pavement."

"What?" Naruto said a little stunned. "He's sending your brother to kill me!? I need to get out of here!" Naruto rushed at the door; Sasuke quickly caught his arm and forced him back a step.

"My brother and I hate Madara. He's going to tell you what they're planning so you and whoever else is on their shit list can get out of their way." Sasuke stood up and put his back pack on. "We're going to wait a minute; you probably don't want to be seen with me in a mass crowd."

"… I was going to go with Sakura and Sai today. There's a new…"

"I don't care." Sasuke interrupted. "Get your things; we'll leave as soon as the hallway thins out." Sasuke said staring out the window waiting for it to die down outside. Naruto had a flash back of Sasuke standing over him and grabbing his shirt with two giant streams of tears running down his eyes, yelling at him, and then punching him in the face. He could still hear his bones breaking sometimes. He quickly snapped out of it, he was one of the schools best football players; he could take Sasuke if he had to now.

Obeying after a few quick thoughts Naruto put on his coat, grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder. His left hand grabbed his water bottle with the right taking up a bag of Lays potato chips. Naruto got somewhat nervous and stood back shoving food into his mouth to have something to do. Sasuke look at him for the noise he was making, "I'm not going to steal your food."

"Sorry." Naruto said through a mouthful and then swallowed his food to apologize again properly. "It's just last time you talked to me…"

"I guess it's one of those things that follows you around, huh?" Sasuke rhetorically asked and then returned to the window. He opened the door, "come on, we're using the teacher's exit."

"Student's aren't allowed… You don't care do you?" The brunette shook his head and had the blond follow him out. Naruto did scan the hallways looking for anyone who would gawk, but he only saw the one bobble headed cheerleader who made it a point to immediately greet him. "Hey Naruto!"

"Ignore her." Sasuke hissed through his teeth. He opened the teacher's exit that released to the teacher's parking lot that was deserted. Naruto tried to follow Sasuke's orders, but Ino grabbed his shoulder. "Hey, what are you up to?"

"Well, I was going…" Naruto said before Sasuke removed her hand with disdain and began pulling him away.

Sasuke growled, "Excuse us," and pushed Naruto out the door and let it slam Ino in face behind them. "I hate cheerleaders." Sasuke said and began walking straight across the lot to the back street. "Keep up; we're expected in five minutes."

"Expected?" Naruto asked and had to run to catch up to him then take long strides to match Sasuke's quick small steps. "Who, your brother?"

"And Kisame Hoshigaki. You know him, I assume. He's a student teacher at the college." Sasuke said and Naruto stopped, Sasuke took little notice. "He's on whatever side my brother is, don't worry."

"That guy is creepy…" Naruto said and slowly began the pace again trying to realize he was trusting what he considered a highly dangerous unpredictable person to other highly dangerous and unpredictable people. "I don't know if I'm okay with this. I'm going to go..."

Sasuke moved faster then he could comprehend and Naruto felt something smooth, sharp and cold against the back of his neck. "If you scream, make any sudden movements, or disobey me…" Sasuke stopped in mid sentence. "I've fucked up your life enough." Sasuke quickly put the knife away in view of Naruto and grabbed his upper arm and pulled him along.

"Every time I try to do something nice for someone, they act like I'm fucking insane." Sasuke waved his free arm around with an annoyed note in his voice. "I know why people don't trust me, or why they treat me like I'm less then they are, but goddamn, you too." Sasuke turned his head to look at him quickly. "Nobody ever gets to make amends anymore because people can move past anything. But nobody gets that people change.

"Yes, I'm still violent, can I control it, yes, could back when I beat you, no." Sasuke's voice was strained and hurt. "You're still scared of me…" Sasuke sounded upset about the fact.

"Maybe if you didn't pull knives on people…" Naruto suggested and Sasuke's anger flashed back into his face. "It was just…"

Sasuke jerked his arm to make him look into his eyes. He could tell that Naruto was actually quite calm and it seemed to make him upset at himself. Sasuke did not want to come across as a lunatic to him, definitely not to him. The anger disappeared into self-disgust that he was doing this to someone he cared about, some one he had fallen for.

Sasuke huffed and turned away to keep dragging him towards the small house with dozens of brightly colored fish decorations in the yard. Sasuke yanked his captive up the sidewalk and stomped up to the door and opened it walking into a fifties styled bungalow with different fish tanks everywhere. Sasuke pulled Naruto in and set him down on a large blue sofa. "Itachi! Kisame!"

They rushed in the room thinking something was wrong and saw Sasuke opening a window and pulling out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter as he knelt down to the opening. Itachi looked at him and then saw Naruto rubbing his arm in pain. Itachi rolled his eyes, "Sasuke!"

"He tried to run. I brought him anyway," Sasuke said and stuck the cigarette in his mouth and lit it taking in a huge breath. He exhaled out the window and turned all his attention to the two small kids outside playing in the yard across the street.

"Here, let me see." Kisame said walking over to Naruto, Naruto exchanged a glance with him, "I'm not going to eat you, kid. That's Zetsu; he has green hair, avoid him." Naruto stopped staring and took off his jacket as Kisame sat down and looked at the giant black bruise that was developing. Kisame touched it gently and Naruto made a little noise. "Itachi, go get some ice. I'll get him some pain medication."

The two adults exited the room. Sasuke blew another smooth funnel out the window and set the cigarette down on the sill. He got up and walked over to sit next to Naruto and stare blankly ahead. "Sorry. It's vital for you coming here though, it's rare that my brother will go out of his way to disobey Madara to help someone, I guess he's really scared for you."

"It's okay. I get bruised all the time, we play football during gym." Naruto laughed and put a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, "think nothing of it, everyone loses their temper."

It hit then, the point of his mission, hurried thoughts and anger had kept it away from his nose. The scent of his aftershave, it was more than alluring. Sasuke wanted to keep sitting by him; Sasuke wanted his hand to move in closer to him, but not here, not now. Sasuke nodded in acceptance of the statement and got up off the couch and sat back down by his cigarette and let the smell of the toxins overtake the aftershave.

Kisame came back first with something in a needle Naruto was a bit hesitant about but let him inject it anyway. Within minutes Naruto's arm had stopped hurting and he thanked Kisame. Kisame sat down and began going on about how they were testing a new pain medication for the hospitals that's more affective then morphine but less side affects. "Some people can get sick from morphine, won't happen with this, also makes dissecting them while they're alive a breeze, they don't scream or wiggle because they don't feel it if you give them a full dose."

Kisame's smile was horrifying enough but his words caused Naruto to move over a bit as well. Naruto tried to avoid any further conversation with him while Itachi walked in the room with a specialized ice pack. "Why can't you keep your ice packs in the fridge?"

"Cadaver lab's colder." Kisame smiled and relaxed back on his couch and turned on the new TV. "You watch History Channel, kid?"

Before Naruto could spit out an answer Kisame started going on about the weapons special and his new TV. Itachi used the strap on the bag and secured the pack to Naruto's arm. "It'll help with the swelling some, just don't use that arm for anything anytime soon."

"Thank you." Naruto said somewhat surprised at the two's hospitality. Naruto began to rethink what he had heard about the both of them, or the three of them but for some reason he was judging Sasuke as different then all of them. His memory jogged itself and he turned to the men surrounding him. "So, what's going to happen to me exactly?"

"You're going to be hurt or killed, hopefully." Itachi said flatly. Naruto looked down at him, then over at Kisame who nodded in accordance with the Uchiha's statement. Naruto turned his head to Sasuke, his face was worried and he had abandoned smoking. He leaned against the sill just smelling the fragrance of the stick with definite passion.

"Madara's had blood on his hands before, he's not afraid of killing." Kisame said quietly, "even a time or two he's had Itachi and I kill people for the movement, but we don't kill kids."

"When you join a movement, you join a war. You're Rome going against Khan." Sasuke said poetically and looked outside at the kids wishing he could be that young and ignorant again.

"We tried to just get your house decorated in dead monkey, but I guess that wasn't good enough." Kisame said upset and Itachi laughed in his head, "dissected monkeys are a frighteningly safe way to scare people. Plus, it's fun to watch them throw up everywhere."

"He really likes dissected monkeys. It's why he does his job everyday." Itachi said and turned to Sasuke who stood up. Sasuke had opened up the window screen and tossed his cigarette butt out. "Going somewhere?"

"'Round the block, maybe to get a SoBe, I'll be back in a few minutes." Sasuke quickly walked past all of them with out a sign of goodbye and opened the door closing it quietly behind him.

"It's starting!" Kisame shouted happily and grabbed the small black remote and cranked the volume up to seventy-five percent.

Several pictures of gladiators came on with a strong voice. "_Disastrous… Lethal… Mutilation… Ancient beings have forged some of the deadliest weapons ever imagined."_

"Kisame, can you turn it down, just a bit please? Him, death, conversation." Itachi said pointing it out to the man who was locked in the special intensely.

Kisame moved over but didn't lower the volume, "move over kid and let Itachi on the couch, _Uncle Madara_ gets pissed when he sits on the floor." He teased quickly and Naruto did so and Itachi climbed up quickly sitting with his knees to his chest.

"So, we've learned that Madara wants the movement to go along without all the protests. Deidara, he's our lawyer," Itachi explained waving a hand, "and Sasori are worried about the press getting a hold of your side and going public and they wanted to stop drawing all this attention to both sides. Instead Madara and Nagato are just going to eventually off you in hopes it will scare off the protestors so they can keep working in peace."

"Won't that just draw more attention?" Naruto asked and Itachi shrugged having not considered the after effects.

---------( ---------- )---------

Kisame Hoshigaki, no matter how mentally disturbed and cruel, lived in a very pleasant cul-de-sac. The houses were all painted in bright and lovely colors, the lawns were cut, and flower beds were rampant. Sasuke stepped outside and set his backpack down taking off his sweater and tossing it down so he was in a plain white tank top.

The neighbors here knew Sasuke and Itachi, Kisame had been a friend of theirs since their parents died and they were both taken in by Madara with no questions asked. All Madara asked was that they got good grades, and they did. Sasuke smiled and walked over to the children whom he recognized and knelt down next to them as they played on hopscotch on the street. "Hi Suri, hi Haru."

"Hi Mr. Uchiha." The boy said being able to talk. His little sister was just two and was quite quiet. Suri looked up at him and smiled through her growing teeth. Haru looked up, his face had paint all over it. "Are you going to play hopscotch with us?"

"Sure, my feet might be a little big for the square though." Sasuke said and took the stone handed to him from Haru. He easily tossed it too the last square and began jumping.

"You're really good at hopscotch, Mr. Uchiha." Haru said happily. Sasuke got to the end and picked up the stone and easily came back. "I want to be good too!"

"It's just lots of practice." Sasuke said and handed him the stone back.

---------( ---------- )---------

Some how Kisame had gotten them all hooked on the special, they sat there in a line just staring at the screen. Naruto smiled, "the resolution is awesome!"

"You must have paid through the nose for this, Kisame." Itachi commented and stared as someone's head was being bashed through by a mace. The cracking of the skull could be heard perfectly.

"It's worth every penny." Kisame said happily.

"_The mace, a formidable weapon indeed. A Complete History of Weapons will return after these…"_

The screams and laughter of children could suddenly be heard over the TV. Kisame's face shot down. "Who the Hell is louder then…" He cranked his head and looked out the window. Kisame smiled and waved his hand frantically. "Ah, Itachi come look out the window."

"Huh?" Itachi got up and knelt down to the open part of the window and smiled. Outside he saw his brother was playing with the kids next door. They had tackled him to the ground and were claiming victory. Sasuke suddenly grabbed both of them and got up tossing them up a bit and catching them. "He's good with kids."

Naruto's curiosity was peaked, he too got up and went down next to Itachi and watched as Sasuke was playing dead quickly and one of the children acted like an Indian. The girl stopped and nudged his leg trying to revive him. Sasuke lurched foreword with a loud 'boo!' and she screamed and began laughing. Naruto smiled, "I've never seen him smile before."

"You're not around him often enough then." Itachi said and their faces changed as Sasuke quickly put the children down and bolted across the street to the fish covered yard. The door busted opened and Sasuke had all of his things in hand.

"What's the matter?" Itachi asked as he ran up and met him.

"Madara's coming." Sasuke huffed quickly.

"Put him in the Cadaver lab, Madara refuses to go in there." Kisame said quickly, Itachi pulled and tossed the key at the young Uchiha. Sasuke caught it and quickly gathered Naruto's stuff into his arms to begin pushing him out the back door towards a building covered that looked like a horror house.


	4. With Dead Bodies

Kisame and Itachi arranged themselves as they normally would, they each had their own end of the couch with two liters and bags of food between them. To make it look real, they sped ate like crazy, making half the bags empty. Kisame smiled, "eating, the best cover you could ever ask for."

"I hope they don't mind the smell in there. I hate it." Itachi said and began chugging a bottle of Mountain Dew.

Kisame stopped and began laughing. Itachi paused to look at him, bottle still pressed to his lips. "I hope Sasuke's lighter's good; the fuse for the lights blew yesterday." Itachi smiled and kept chugging until the car entered the driveway. He put the drink down and screwed on the cap and relaxed back. Kisame put up his footrest and stretched out quickly.

There was a knock on the door. "WHAT?" Kisame yelled like he normally did.

Madara was forced to open the door and walk in himself to see the man-fest on the couch. "Am I interrupting good television?"

"Yep." Itachi said blankly glaring at the screen.

"The best." Kisame added and the voice of the show came back on.

"_The Aztecs had their own cruel version of the sword…" _Madara's eye twitched in adgitation.

---------( ---------- )---------

Kisame's back yard was highly neglected unlike the front. It was composed of dead brown grass with a high wooden fence that was falling to pieces. They approached a large white building with rust stains over it that looked like blood. Sasuke fumbled with the key as they heard a car enter the driveway. Shoving the thick silver key into the door and turning it they opening the world to the stench of rotting and decayed bodies. The smell nearly knocked Naruto back.

Sasuke tossed their things on the floor, pushed Naruto inside then ran in himself shutting the door. He could hear his breath in the darkness and his right arm went up and found the cold metal light switch. There was an echo as the switch went up and nothing happened. "Damn, lights out."

"We're in a room… with dead bodies… and no light…" Naruto's voice was quivering at the thought. "Dead bodies…"

"Calm down, they're not going to come back to life. They're too dissected for that." Sasuke began grabbing at the pile and felt a bag. Woven in diamond pattern, that was Naruto's bag. He grabbed his and opened the pocket pulling out a smooth and cool box. He opened it with a click and grabbed a cylinder object and pulled out his lighter. The flame flickered on and touched the black stem of a short white emergency candle. The light soon spread and they had a little bit of light between the two of them. "I only have one emergency candle on me, so you'll have to bear with the darkness."

A loud bang occurred and Naruto shot over next to Sasuke sitting down. Sasuke laughed at him, "it's just the system kicking it. It has to keep cool in here, bodies and everything. Why are you so jumpy?"

"I don't like dead things." Naruto said and grabbed his coat as the cold air poured in by the barrel. "How cold is it going to get in here?"

"Down to 10 degrees below." Naruto quickly put on his coat and zipped it up. Sasuke sat there staring at the candle. "Now we just have to wait until Itachi annoys Madara enough that he leaves."

"How long will that take?" Naruto asked starting to feel the cold. Sasuke noticed his shivering and got up leaving the light of the candle. Naruto watched as Sasuke disappeared into the darkness. He heard what sounded like cupboards opening and closing.

Sasuke knew every inch of the lab, getting stuck in there often enough. He retrieved a blanket for Naruto, he remembered his first time stuck in here when he was eleven. He nearly froze to death. Sasuke turned and saw Naruto meters away in the candle light. He looked at his hand, he was invisible to him. Sasuke took a moment for himself and stared at the blond, his blue eyes illuminated by the candles, skin shadowed. Sasuke would have to draw this when he got home.

Another emotion arose, one of a more selfish nature. Sasuke tried to rub the notion out but it came back. They were alone, in darkness. If the candle 'blew' out, Naruto would be trapped in the darkness. He didn't know his way around and the lab was sound proof to prevent people freaking from the noise of bones breaking. A smiled came to Sasuke's face and he was seriously thinking about it for a second.

He looked so soft in the candle light; it was like he was supposed to. His hands clenched around the blanket and silently he took a step foreword. He wanted to touch him.

"Did you die or something?" Naruto called out randomly into the darkness. Sasuke's mind jumped the thoughts to reality; they'd only be here a few minutes, Naruto's screaming might be loud enough to break the sound proof walls and he'd have to kill him afterwards.

"No I didn't die." Sasuke said walking over and tossing a heavy red blanket at him trying to distract his own mind. He sat down in the candle light and smiled for them both to see. "If it gets too cold, we can burn our creative writing handbooks." Naruto smirked. "I swear to God, they are the single most useless things I have ever laid my eyes on. I can't believe they paid fifty bucks a book for those pieces of junk."

"I find them useful, it's how I learned to write my stories, though, I guess I'm not writing them well enough." Naruto said and grabbed his bag to pull it out. "I followed the formula and everything." Sasuke looked at the page and gave him a look along the lines of 'why the Hell would you want to do that?' "Hey, it's a good formula."

"It's shit, you need something more random." Sasuke reached in his back pack and pulled out a small block of something covered in velvet with a rubber band over it. He took off the band letting it slide to his wrist and set the velvet down opening it to show large cards with a pentagram on their backs. "I use tarot cards, new plot each time."

"Really?" Naruto asked and Sasuke handed him the deck. Naruto took it and stared at it. "What do you do?"

"You draw however many cards you like, organize them into a plot." Sasuke's phone began going off and he pulled it out of his pocket and tapped the screen answering it. "What?" He waited for a minute, "No, not really, what's up?" There was some yelling over the phone. "Karin, get me picture would ya?"

"SASUKE! YOU'RE NOT HELPING!" Was screamed through the phone in a high screech. "HE STOLE MY LANGIRE AND IS PARADING AROUND IN THEM!"

"As I said before: get me a picture, would you. Anyway, I'm not busy, but I am detained for an unknown amount of time…. Just bash him on the head after you get a picture." Sasuke said as if it was common sense. A loud disgruntled noise came through and the line died.

"I hope she gets that picture. I'm going to submit it to yearbook." An evil smile curled around his lips and he shoved the phone back into his pockets. He turned back to the cards and noticed Naruto watching him. "Just flip the cards over, as many as you like."

"Oh," Naruto said after he re-explained it. Naruto shuffled the cards and then flipped one out, followed by three more. "So what's my plot?" He said staring down at all the bright orange and yellow picture.

"Wow, three wands… Um, you have the page so a person with a mission, and then the three, he's supposed to retrieve or send off something. The five, there's an inner struggle like coming of age, and the magician, he becomes good at something. That easy." Sasuke said sitting back and crossing his arms.

"So, don't follow the book?" Naruto asked and Sasuke grabbed his copy of the book and tore out the formula page and held it above the candle. "Hey!"

Naruto tried to grab it from him, but Sasuke held out a hand keeping him back. "The books value actually increases after you destroy this page." He said slightly amused, the page began to burn and soon caught fire and Sasuke let it fall to the ground.

He watched it as it burned and Naruto growled at him. "You can't go around destroy other people's properties!"

"It's one page of one book. Does something that's been making you fail really mean that much to you?" Sasuke asked him calmly as the page's last corner went up in flames and the extra light diminished. His voice was like the room, composed and cool. "The tarot cards are a better instrument then that book. Don't always trust what they teach, they can be wrong."

"Still," Naruto adjusted himself with his back to the cold door and grabbed the blanket throwing it over himself tightly. "What's taking so long?"

"It's highly possible they'll forget about us until the shows over." Sasuke said collecting his cards and putting them away neatly. Sasuke crossed his legs and set his hands in between them after pulling them back into his sweater. "Luckily it's only an hour special. I've been locked in here for three hours before. I didn't know they were that into Lord of the Rings, but they were. They like the nazguls."

---------( ---------- )---------

"Well, I need you two to do something for me." Madara said crossing his arms and watching the two carefully. They didn't move at all. Both just stared at the show and occasionally chewed the food in their mouths. For the past ten minutes they had been enjoying the show and enjoying pissing off Madara. "It's somewhat important!"

"SHH!" Both went as they watch a tomahawk land in someone's neck; the head tip over showing a huge hole. Kisame dropped a fish stick and applauded it. Itachi reeled back a bit laughing as the CGI blood spilled over the screen. Madara was obviously no match for the TV.

"Well, where is Sasuke at least? I haven't seen him in a week." Itachi shrugged and shoved a piece of cold pizza into his mouth taking as big of a bite as he could. "You have no clue where you're little brother is?"

"I saw him a few days ago." He said with a full mouth. He stopped and swallowed quickly. "Was thinking about getting a new tattoo, very Emo as usual. He was also talking about dropping out of school again, I think it annoys him." Itachi said and waved him off as the show began going through the tomahawk landing in various parts of the body. Fake blood gushed everywhere on the TV and the two were comprehensively entertained.

Madara grunted and turned to leave quite disappointed in his distant relative and one of his top researchers who had been so easily sucked into the reenactments. "Don't forget we're having our monthly dinner tomorrow, it's the only way I can keep up with either of you." They heard the door open.

"Bye Uncle Madara." Itachi said loudly with out turning his head.

"Later Boss!" Kisame called and the door slammed shut. They heard the car door slam as well a few seconds later. "He has a Mercedes, he shouldn't slam the doors."

"He doesn't deserve that car, the only reason he has it is because Senju has one." Itachi set the food off to the side.

"She deserves that car, takes really good care of it, and washes it once a month too, interior and everything." Kisame said picking up the eating slack.

"Should we go let them out?" Itachi asked realizing that they sent the boys into a room that can only be opened from the inside by a code which neither had access to. Kisame turned to him weighing the options and turned back to the screen.

"Commercial break." Kisame said and Itachi nodded in agreement.

---------( ---------- )---------

Sasuke stared at the candle blankly waiting for a knock or something; instead his phone went off again. He looked at the screen and grimaced. Sasuke put a finger to his mouth for silence and Naruto nodded. He pressed the screen, "Hey Uncle Madara."

"Where are you, I haven't seen you in a week!" Madara yelled through the phone. "I'm your legal guardian, at least you can do is call and tell me that I'm still guarding something."

"Sorry, I've been busy." Sasuke said quickly knowing it wasn't going to be much of a conversation.

"Your brother said you've been thinking of dropping out again." Sasuke's face twisted. "You know what I think about that."

"I'm sixteen, I can drop out." Sasuke replied quickly.

"_Only_ with _my_ permission! Why don't you just finish school? A diploma's _far_ better then a GED."

"You're breaking up…" Sasuke said and promptly ended the call and shut his phone off. He sighed and shoved the phone back into his pocket. "You have to fight him, I have to live with him during the summer, consider yourself lucky."

Naruto smiled a little and then felt bad for Sasuke. He at least lived with someone he liked. The door quickly began to open, Sasuke grabbed the candle and blew it out and grabbed his bag. Naruto shoved his book in his bag and just got out of the way tangled in the blanket for them to see Kisame grinning down at them. "Must have been some boring conversations, dead people have nothing good to talk about."

Sasuke was going to open his mouth and say something about the fact that Kisame had tried talking to dead people but dropped it. He quickly walked out of the cold followed by Naruto freshly out of the blanket. He seemed more then relieved to get out of the room. They began to walk towards the house where Itachi could be seen waiting just inside. Sasuke opened the door and let Naruto in first and then followed him in to the small kitchen.

"Madara is having Hidian toss a cocktail into Jiraiya's house in hopes that you'll burn too, I wouldn't go home tonight." Itachi said quite distracted by seemingly nothing. "Well, I would and get everything you absolutely need and then quickly get out of there. Maybe you can take him in for the night Sasuke."

"Black Bird is members only." Sasuke said quickly and Naruto stared at him. "I don't need half the world finding out where we live, it's our safe house. No offense." Sasuke said turning to Naruto. "But it's the only place we can go that's ours."

"_Mon frère_!"

Naruto tried to get in a sentence but wasn't able to seeing as Itachi and Sasuke yelling at each other in French. Naruto didn't know any French, and he surely couldn't read facial expressions. He just hung back as it looked like Itachi had begun to win then abruptly stuck a tongue out giving his little brother a raspberry and they broke out laughing. To Naruto, this was all very, very strange.

Sasuke and Itachi's conversation in French went something like this when translated. "Damn it Itachi, you know why I can have certain people around me, it always gets me in trouble."

"Sasuke just deal with it for a night, it's not like you're planning on raping him!... You had better not be planning on raping him! It's illegal." Itachi said seriously.

"Of course not, but it's better to take away the temptation, isn't it?" Sasuke asked and threw his arms across his chest. "Anyway this one's kind of different and he's actually really popular at school."

"Never stopped you in overseas, you had a different boyfriend in each town."

"Do go around pointing that out and see how fast I get my stomach kicked in again." Sasuke snapped sarcastically. "Anyway I'm sure he has friend he can stay with so I'm not that close to him. I have problems being around him."

"You have a crush on him don't you?" Sasuke turned away to the ground and Itachi smiled in a mocking way. "That's why you injured him; you were trying to keep him farther away from you. Well, why not hang out around him, it's what people normally do when they like someone unless you want to grow up and be like Madara. All alone and surrounded by insignificant pricks and a house full of cats!" It was at that point Itachi stuck out his tongue and they both started laughing.

They returned to English and Itachi rubbed his little brother's head playfully. "I've decided it then, he can stay at Black Bird house."

"I never agreed to that." Sasuke said and Itachi rolled up his sleeve showing the thin black bird tattoo on the top of his shoulder. "Alright, so you have as much say as I do… Fine. We'll let you pick," Sasuke said and turned to the blond who was finally being let into the conversation. "I'll show you Black Bird house, and if your house gets set on fire you can come stay the night with us _if you want_."

"Um… alright." Naruto said still somewhat confused. He wasn't sure what either of them had said and didn't know what Black Bird house was or where it was like. He also wasn't too keen about going anywhere with Sasuke right now anyway, especially since his arm was starting to turn a lovely hue of black and purple.

Kisame opened the back door and stepped in making the room far too crowded. Naruto took a few steps back giving them as much space as possible. Kisame worked through them and moved back into the living room to resume his seat on the couch. "Itachi, show's staring back up."

Itachi abandoned them and began stalking towards the living room. He turned his head back quickly, "we have plenty of food if you two are hungry. You should probably take some back to Black Bird. There's lots of ramen in the pantry that we don't eat."

"Can I borrow the car then?" Sasuke asked following him, he looked at his brother as Itachi sat down. Itachi leaned back and pulled out a full key ring tossing it to him. Sasuke tilted his head back towards the kitchen for Naruto to see. Naruto followed him in and was handed a box as Sasuke opened the cupboards quickly and began tossing an assortment of food into it. He then looked up to a high cupboard and smiled. Sasuke silently climbed on the counter and pulled the door out just a smidgeon.

"Keep shoveling food in there." Sasuke whispered and pulled out his knife letting the blunt end of the blade slide in and press a latch back opening the liquor cabinet. Sasuke grabbed a small bottle and softly closed the cabinet using the blade to keep the latch back, completely silent. Sasuke got down as softly as he had gotten up and grabbed Naruto's bag, while it was still attached, shoving the glass bottle in there. He patted it and stole the box from Naruto. "We're good, let's go."

Naruto wanted to say something about the stolen item but didn't. He simply remained quiet, the words lingering on his lips but couldn't let it out. As they were walking out Itachi looked at them, waved. Sasuke nodded and Naruto thanked him for warning him and walked out behind Sasuke closing the door. "You shouldn't have taken that."

"Shh... It's not for me. It's for Jugo, he doesn't have his ID yet so he can't buy drinks." Sasuke explained quietly and walked over to the garage and opened the side door. "A few things about the car," Sasuke said as he set the box down and flipped on the light. Naruto looked in and saw one of the most beaten up things he had ever seen. "It just looks bad, we did that ourselves to protect the car, it's actually a really good car."

"It looks like you drove it off the Grand Canyon." Naruto said loudly. Sasuke opened up the backseat setting the box in and strapping it in. Sasuke took off his bag and placed it in as well.

"Gimmie your bag." Sasuke waited a second for the boy to follow the order and he pushed Naruto's bag in there too taking the bottle out and hiding it in the box under some items. Sasuke stepped back and closed the door, his eyes skimming over to Naruto, "well go get in."

Naruto looked at him as Sasuke got in the driver's seat and pressed a button opening the garage door. He slammed the door and waited until Naruto finally walked around to the other side of the car and got in. Sasuke stopped for a second letting the keys dangle in the ignition. "Do you have a delay setting?"

"What?" Naruto asked looking at him confused as he put on the seat belt.

Sasuke put his seat belt on to and took a second processing his explaination. "You're on delay, every time I tell you something; it takes you a few seconds to do it. Just try to pay more attention; Madara's not going to give you a ten second head start." Sasuke started the car.

"Sorry, I'm just a bit distracted." Naruto said and all the rumors he's heard about in school came swirling into one, large word Naruto never said but heard every time when someone mentions Sasuke: fag. Naruto wasn't sure if he was gay or not, he was always hanging around Karin, he was sure that Sasuke shouldn't be called that word. No one should, it was rude. Naruto got upset when people called him an ignorant jock, he guessed Sasuke was in the same boat. Naruto did figure as long as he was stuck with sasuke, he mind as well get some use out of him. "Will you help me with my story?"

Sasuke turned his head and backed up the car considering it. Before he could answer Naruto continued. "You're like the best writer Kakashi's ever seen."

"I guess. Just don't tell anyone, I like my reputation as a self-righteous bastard." Sasuke smiled and turned the car out onto the road.


	5. The Sith

There has never been a guest at Black Bird house; there was never a reason too. All the outcasts were already there seeking shelter from fellows not much different then themselves. A popular boy doesn't belong there, Sasuke still felt that, but Itachi wouldn't let him act out of line right now since Naruto's life was on the line and he was now his baby sitter. Sasuke stopped the car in the back alley of a row of buildings. When walking he always went to the front, but he didn't want Naruto to be seen with him.

He stopped the car in the shade of the house next to Black Bird and pulled off his seat belt. Naruto stopped and looked around outside, "you live here? I mean, in this part of town, isn't it pretty rough?"

"You get used to it. Jugo's friends with all the druggies and gets them to leave us alone, Karin works with the hookers to stay away from our block and Suigetsu scares everyone else away. It's safe here." Sasuke said and opened his door to the outside world where the smell of car exhaust and old garbage loomed all around. He didn't seemed bothered in the least bit by any of it. Naruto unbuckled and got out as well. Sasuke was already digging in the back seat and tossed him his bag. "Can you carry the box in?"

"Sure." Naruto walked over and Sasuke handed him the box carefully avoiding their hands touching. Sasuke then grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder closing the door. He went to the neighboring abandoned building and opened the busted screen door. Naruto walked in far enough and Sasuke easily moved past him the door slapping shut on a broken hinge. Sasuke quickly turned the corner and started downstairs. Naruto took his time questioning each stair as it looked like it would easily snap in half. He slowly reached the bottom to see Sasuke staring at a large metal door.

"Before you go in, understand that they might not be so happy to see you. We've never had a guest over in three years of living here. Be careful of what you say, or better yet, don't talk." Sasuke said and Naruto walked over; Sasuke looked at the padlock on the floor, all of them were in. Sasuke grabbed the handle and pulled it open making sure he was first in.

"Sasuke! Dude, where have you been?" Suigetsu clearly called. "You missed it, we discovered I'm the exact same size as Karin." Jugo began laughing at the end of the sentence.

Sasuke stepped in farther and turned to Naruto, "you can come in." Suigetsu and Jugo's head immediately shot to the door and wondered who he was talking to until the blond walked in. "I'll explain in a minute." Sasuke said before either could comment on him. "Where's Karin? We're having an open meeting."

"Upstairs." Jugo said slowly and watched as Sasuke took the box from Naruto and left him downstairs with the two Black Birds. It was a moment before anyone did anything but surprisingly it wasn't Jugo who acted first.

"Do you have the homework for English done?" Suigetsu asked staring up from a small tattered copy of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. "Like, I read the book, but the page of questions is retarded."

"Uh, I might." Naruto said and dropped his bag from off his shoulder to set it on the floor and open it. Naruto pulled out a bright green folder and began shifting through organized papers to pull out a bright pink sheet reading 'Of Mice and Men – Week Two Homework.' He quickly scanned it over, it was all filled out. Naruto walked it over to him and pointed out question three. "I just put something down, I'm not even sure if it makes sense or not so… yea."

"Thanks." Suigetsu said and took out his sheet and began rewording the answers onto his sheet and then mimicked their teacher, "it's not plagiarizing if you reword it…" He laughed slightly and notice Jugo starring at him.

"Are you… a friend of Sasuke's?" Jugo asked looking at him for the right words to say.

Naruto was about to say no when Sasuke came downstairs and slapped Suigetsu upside the head grabbing Naruto's sheet to hand it back. "Suigetsu's lazy, don't let him copy." Sasuke said and pointed to the blue plaid couch, "Go sit down."

Naruto did so while Sasuke walked over and closed the door locking it from the inside. Suigetsu quickly got up from his spot on the floor next to the table and sat down on the couch next to Jugo. Karin slithered down the stairs in a small purple dress and sat down, still quite angry at Suigetsu, on the red couch crossing her legs not taking any notice of Naruto.

Sasuke positioned himself in front of all of them quite comfortably which made Naruto feel that he just didn't like creative writing. Sasuke scratched his head, "Madara's going to try and burn his house down tonight, so Naruto may or may not be staying here as a precaution," Suigetsu and Karin both lurched foreword. "Itachi wants to keep him alive, so we follow what he says."

"Itachi's not in charge of the house, you are Sasuke!" Suigetsu yelled loudly. "You wrote it down yourself on the rules, 'MEMBERS ONLY!'"

"We need to protect ourselves as well." Karin said, "what about us? Madara's more likely to follow him here! If your uncle finds you've been living here he'll have the whole damn block condemned and bulldozed. Then where will we live? We don't have any family!" She hit here hands on the couch and stared up at him like he had betrayed them.

"Naruto… Uzumaki?" Jugo asked looking over at the boy who was a little terrified. Naruto turned his head towards the huge man. "Sasuke said you've been bouncing around orphanages since you were born. You don't have a family either. You're in the same boat as we are."

"That doesn't change anything, rules are rules. Let's ditch him, orphan or not." Suigetsu said coldly.

"When I wrote that rule we were kids, it's protected us fine for now but you all knew it wouldn't hold forever. Anyway, he may not be staying, but as long as Madara's after him this _will_ be a safe haven for him." Sasuke said putting his foot down. Karin and Suigetsu immediately sat back accepting his judgment. "If he messes up I'll take responsibility for him just like I do for all of you. Got it?"

The room went silent and Sasuke turned to Naruto and nodded his head for him to follow him and lead him past the three members up towards the stairs. Sasuke casually climbed them and led him to the first story. "Stay here for a second."

"Okay." Naruto said and watched as Sasuke walked down to the front of the house and went into the left room. The left room had a huge bay area window that was boarded up, an up there Sasuke had posted drawings. He didn't care about Naruto seeing those, he planned to show them off, however on the cushions of the seat were his private drawings much like on the stairwell.

A few of these he didn't want Naruto to see. One of them included the one he drew last night after his bath; it was of Naruto wrapped in a sheet gazing up at the viewer with a slick little smile. So far, it was Sasuke's favorite. He took the image and put them in the safest place he could think of, his pants pocket. Sasuke stepped out of the room and began strolling back towards him.

"That's general area one and two down there; they have like art supplies. Don't touch Jugo's guitar and amp." Sasuke said walking past him towards the kitchen. "We pay fifty cents for all the food we take out of the fridge because we give money to Itachi to keep the electricity and gas going. The jar for it is on top of the fridge. We each have our own cupboards; they're labeled as you can tell." Sasuke said pointing to the black marker on them. "I don't use mine, so, if you ever want to store something you can just stick it in there. All the first aid is under the sink, if you don't want to use the first aid avoid Suigetsu when he's playing with his knives."

Naruto gulped nervously and looked over at him. Sasuke didn't think too much on it, people's first reaction to Suigetsu was to run away. In his opinion, Naruto was handling it fairly well. Sasuke turned a pointed to the stairs, "all the rooms are up here."

"So, you guys live here by yourselves?" Naruto asked and Sasuke nodded, "What if the state finds out?"

"Can't do anything, I'm under Madara right now, and Jugo legally took Karin as a kid, which is odd… Then Suigetsu is supposed to be being fostered by Kisame, but they always fight so he's over here. Anyway, being squatters isn't illegal." Sasuke started up the stairs following the turns and landed himself on the second story with the third flood stairs behind him. He moved over and began pointing.

"Suigetsu's, mine, and the last one on the left is yours to use. That's Itachi's room and that's Kisame's. Easy enough rule, stay out of everybody else's room. Bathroom's last on the right. Karin and Jugo are on the floor up but you'll have no need to go up there. Ever. That's Black Bird house." Sasuke said and walked down to the last door on the left and opened it. "It's not much but, if you find any furniture, feel free to bring it over. We'll keep it after you leave."

"Thanks Sasuke, but I want to try and go home for tonight. If I get bombed I'll be back here though." Naruto said walking over and looking in the room with a bed and a chair. He looked up at Sasuke and smiled at him.

"Do you want a ride?" Sasuke didn't mean to say those words, but he did. Some part of him wanted to remain with Naruto a little bit longer, he didn't want to let go of his presence yet, the smell of his aftershave. He was wondering if Naruto had noticed.

Naruto stopped for a second, thought about it and looked up. "Sure, why don't you stay over and help me with my story since it's due Thursday and I forgot what I was supposed to use as my plot." He said kind of guilty of his absent-mindedness.

Sasuke didn't know what to say, he wanted to say no to that, he would be way too close to Naruto for too long. He would be in Naruto's house, and it would smell like him. He did however drift into his brother's thoughts somehow in the fact that if he went with him, and they did try to blow the place up, he'd be there to help Naruto. He looked up at him, "alright."

Naruto continued smiling and it made Sasuke feel good. 'He's happy about spending time with me.' It was the only thought that mattered right now. Sasuke felt his backpack heavy on his shoulders. "Let me go trade in some of my stuff." He said and drifted down to his room. He heard Naruto follow him to the edge of his room but didn't follow him in until he started looking around. "Whoa, where'd you get all the posters?"

Naruto walked in with his head cranked up to the ceiling and Sasuke smiled, "France, Italy, United Kingdom, Turkey, Greece, Spain, Portugal. Madara takes me traveling during the summer; he's planning on taking me to South America this summer for two months. I'm buying up bug nets already." Sasuke joked and Naruto laughed at it.

Sasuke dropped his bag off of his shoulders and on to his bed sorting things out and then walked over to his desk and shuffled through some papers and shoved them in his bag. He zipped his bag closed again and picked it up with it weighing ten pounds less. "Alright let's go."

"You're so lucky you get to travel," Naruto commented as they made their way out of the room. Sasuke closed the door behind them and they started for the stairs. "I have to spend my summers working."

"I would but… It's not kidnapping if it's your legal guardian I guess." They both laughed. Sasuke was really liking the way this was going and couldn't help but keep smiling. The only thing that was going through Naruto's head was 'what was that plot… damn it!' He did however notice that the more he talked with Sasuke, the more Sasuke smiled. Maybe it was that Sasuke was lonely and needed a normal friend. That, Naruto was willing to do, he was always willing to help someone. Sasuke turned to him as they got to the bottom of the stairs, "you're staying with Jiraiya aren't you, the Mod Lit Dean."

"Yea, he's cool, gives me all the money the state gives him. I have one of the biggest video game collections in town thanks to it." Naruto said proudly. "You play video games?"

"Used to, then I got into drawing and writing and genetics." Sasuke stopped and listened near the stairs leading to the basement, it was quiet. His head leaned in and he slowly climbed down the stairs to see Jugo sitting on the couch by himself reading the newspaper from last week. Sasuke slid in next to him and tapped on the top of the paper getting his attention. The large man looked past the rim and saw him with two faint green eyes. "We're going out; don't have the door locked, alright?"

"Okay. Karin would like you to know she's very upset at you, however Suigetsu would like a change in rules so that it's 'Members only unless by arrangement so he can do stupid things to piss of Karin.'" He said and picked the paper back up and continued.

"We're not a fucking country club." Sasuke said and slid past him towards the door where Naruto was waiting.

---------( blAck bIrd)---------

Jiraiya's home was a small one story that was painted a dull beige, the only thing that stood out about the house was the fact that the door was way too white. Sasuke parked the car in the small drive way and this time copied Naruto. They got out, walked up the small side walk and entered after Naruto spent a minute trying to get the key too work. The door creaked loudly when it opened to a place that smelled all too like Naruto, just as Sasuke had predicted.

The entire place was small and crowded with books, even in the hallway. Sasuke snickered, "Can you tell he's an author?"

"Yeah, he goes overboard on a lot of stuff." Naruto said and took him down a small hallway to a regular wooden door with a regular gold-painted knob. Naruto turned it and there was the room with video games everywhere along with several dozen trophies and some dirty laundry. To Sasuke, this was a mess, he was a neat freak. He could stand it though, it smelled like the aftershave, the mint gum, and especially the sweat. Naruto simply sat on his bed and began pulling out all of his creative writing notes. "So… do you remember my plot?"

"Yeah, somewhat… No." Sasuke said after going through his thoughts. "Why don't you write about what you feel like writing about? It's what I always do." Sasuke didn't see a place for him to sit down other then on the bed next to the blond which somewhat bother him because it was too close for Sasuke's thoughts not to wander. In fact it was very hard just for Sasuke to keep his eyes off places they shouldn't be.

Naruto however was oblivious to Sasuke's struggle. He simply grabbed his laptop and opened it showing a picture of him, Sakura, and Sai making funny faces. Naruto opened up a new word document and waited for Sasuke to say something. "So what do I write about?"

"What do you want to write about?" Sasuke asked in a kind of distant tone. He quickly corrected himself and turned to Naruto, "you can't write anything good unless you're interested in the topic. So, what are you interested in?" Sasuke stopped and resented asking that. He was now expecting an answer like 'girls' or a specific girl or something that would make him shove himself farther away from Naruto.

"I like frogs." Naruto said without hesitation. "Can't you tell?" He asked pointing to all of his room. Sasuke hadn't taken his eyes of Naruto yet to see that the entire room was covered in frog and toad paraphernalia. "I just don't know where to go from there."

"The frog prince." Sasuke thought quickly of the old fairy tale. "Rewrite the frog prince in a toxic waste dump or something with five heads and there's a hippy that falls in love with him or some shit. Simple as that, It's about frogs, you can use as many frog facts as you like, and it can talk."

"That's a great idea! I wish I could think on my feet like that." Naruto said and was about to type something but stopped. "I don't know where to start."

"Where do you want it to start?" Sasuke asked and looked up at the ceiling where a giant orange swirl was recently painted. "I've been known to start my stories at the end and work my way to the beginning going through past events like memories." He stopped and smiled, "you should make it a comedy too."

"Comedies are hard."

"Well, now you've got me to help you, and I'm saying all you need to so to write a good comedy is to be a little out of your mind." He said and began looking around, "find something funny and keep repeating it. Repetitiveness is what keeps it funny."

With that Naruto began writing. Sasuke had already finished his story; he did it Sunday without anyone bothering him at the college's library using his brother's pass. It was a good hefty nine pages with little intricate details and notes. He pulled it out and looked at it. He bet if he made Naruto read his work that he couldn't tell that the story was about him and all his minute perfections. No one could possibly figure it out; it was too cleverly disguised as a worship piece.

"After a few minutes Naruto stopped abruptly. He scooted over right next to Sasuke and shoved the laptop on him. "What does the frog say that's funny?"

"Hum…" Sasuke stopped and read through what he had written. "Bud-wis-er." They broke out laughing; it was simply funny in itself and would possible make the story. Naruto thought it was ingenious and pulled the computer back to keep writing.

Sasuke noticed that Naruto wasn't moving back over, their legs were still touching and so were there arms. He thought if he moved away it would insult so he just sat there staring over at the computer screen. Naruto didn't even recognize that they were touching, he was wrapped up in scaring a hillbilly with a talking frog. Sasuke glared at his paper and quickly shoved it back. He focused on Naruto's story, it was far cuter.

---------( blAck bIrd)---------

It was just about six when Sasuke finally felt he should really leave. They had his story done and finished and spent the rest of the time sprawled out on his bed beating the shit out of each other on Soul Caliber IV. Sasuke only played as Darth Vader and he had a very good reason. "Jedi never get to have any fun, their like catholic priest with less fucked up views. Plus, the dark side has cookies!"

"The Jedi have cookies too." Naruto said in defense of Yoda. He tried to land a hit but the Sith lord blocked and they moved apart leaving their characters to have another useless conversation.

"Do you have them on you?" Sasuke asked looking at him. Naruto shook his head, "then shut up." Sasuke made Vader charge foreword while Naruto was off guard and took out the little green master in a blaze of combs. "No amount of cookies will save you now! The dark side is far more powerful." Sasuke said lowering his voice. "Join us and share in the unruly amount of cookies."

"Wait… Do you have cookies?" Naruto asked. Sasuke reached a hand off the bed and pulled a box from his bad and waved them in front of him. "You have Girl Scout cookies?"

"They sell them in front of the drug store… And the Girl Scouts have joined the dark side." Sasuke said and teased him with them by pulling them back when Naruto tried to grab the box. "Young padiwan, join the dark side and get cookies, otherwise watch as I feast."

"Nawh, I have to eat healthy, I have baseball coming up." Naruto said and quickly reached for his remote. Sasuke was a bit faster then him and was able to block then toss Yoda off the platform. "Damn it."

"Yeah, sucks being the good guys all the time, doesn't it?" Sasuke said and sat up shoving the box away and closing up his bag. "I better go find Karin and Suigetsu and make sure they don't want to kill me. If your house catches on fire, feel free to show up."

"Alright, thanks for helping me with my story." Naruto stuck a hand out and smiled goofily. Sasuke looked at him then smiled and shook his hand. Sasuke let go of his hand, nodded, and slung his bag over his shoulder walking out of the room. Sasuke was feeling very good, Itachi was right thankfully, plus, he had cookies.


	6. You know what'd go great in this?

Soon after Sasuke left him, Naruto got bored of killing Darth in revenge and decided it was for his best interests to move along. For a while Naruto decided to clean his room. He picked up all the clothes on the floor, sorted out the clean clothes and put them away. The dirty clothes he tossed in his hamper in the bathroom. He picked up all the papers off the floor and did the same thing basically. After he finished he stopped and looked outside to see the setting sun, he had maybe a half an hour of sun light left. He looked out the window seriously and didn't spot anything threatening, but didn't want to take a chance with his luck.

Jiraiya's office had a huge fire proof safe, you could fit almost anything in it, a person, the fridge, both. Naruto grabbed his PS3 and all of his games into a duffle bag and went into the calming room painted a light blue. All that was in the office was a small desk, a chair, lots of books and the huge black safe. Jiraiya though he was slick, he kept the key to it on top of it, where anyone over six and a half feet tall could easily see it. Naruto easily reached up and felt around for it. His hand felt a oddity and pulled it down. He opened the safe, set the duffle bag on a shelf and closed it.

Replacing the key he felt very paranoid. Jiraiya would laugh at him if he saw the game system. Naruto figured the old motto safe then sorry would work here and eased his mind a little. A lot of what ifs then popped into his head. 'What if they do set the house on fire? What if I can't get out?' Naruto then took the liberty of making sure all the doors were unlocked and that the windows were open, at least one in each room.

Naruto felt much better when he finished doing that and casually went back to his room and realized he had nothing to do except play solitaire on the laptop. Surprisingly, it was sufficient enough entertainment to last until he heard a window break.

---------( ---------- )---------

Hidan and Kakuzu were very uncomfortable in the street clothes they had borrowed. Hidan just shut up and decided to deal with it, he spent his time fingering the vodka bottle in the bag with a rag and pocketbook of matches. His only regret was that they didn't get to stay and watch after they set the house on fire, they were instructed to run.

Kakuzu on the other hand was being very verbal about his dislike of the clothes, and for the ten minute walk from campus to the spot they were at now, he had not shut up and Hidan was about to snap. "We look like god damn gang bangers!"

"Oh SHUT UP! You do not; no gang would ever bang you! You're too fucking ugly!" Hidan yelled and quickly moved faster in the uncomfortable gothic clothes. He practically ran the rest of the block and stopped by a street corner looking at the sign post. "Come on, you useless piece of shit, it's another block over."

"I'm going to kill you." Kakuzu said strongly with an eerie calm. "It's going to be when your not looking, I'm just going to grab you and beat you until all your bloods been tossed out of your body by the force of my fist hitting you."

"How poetic." Hidan mocked quickly as they walked along finding their bearings and came upon the small tan house. "That piece of shit is it?"

"Let's just get this over with, I want to get out of these clothes." Kakuzu growled at his lab partner. They slowly crept up to the house: Hidan pulled the bottled out and quickly uncorked it. He grabbed the cloth and shoving it in half way. "Do you know what your doing?"

"Not really, but were about to find out, aren't we?" Hidan smiled and made sure the half of the cloth that was hanging out was soaked thoroughly. He grabbed the lighter, lit the tip and saw as the flame rose quickly. "SHIT!"

Without aiming he threw the bottle and they began running away. They heard the window break and Kakuzu considered it good enough. Inside the smoke alarms immediately began going off. "I guess you are good for something."

They crossed the street and bean walking away from it back towards the college. Hidan pulled out his cell phone and pressed one then send. It rang for a few seconds. "Yea Nagato… It's burning really pretty. You should be able to see it if you go outside, the smoke." He stopped for a minute, smiled and then hung up the phone. "He said we could keep the clothes as a reward."

Kakuzu grimaced deeply. "You all…" He stopped as he saw the boy they hoped would catch fire rush past them in a frantic manor. He was completely unharmed. "At least we scared him."

---------( ---------- )---------

Naruto grabbed his bag as the smoke alarms started going off. He didn't have time to think so he grabbed a fresh shirt and his laptop and bailed out his window onto the grass. He landed on his feet shakily and backed to the sidewalk. He looked as the flames grew ecstatically out the window. Naruto felt a hand on his forehead and it ran through his hair pulling him back farther. Only after he swore loudly did he realize it was his hand. He set the bag on his shoulders and looked towards the college. He had to tell Jiraiya.

Naruto ran as fast as he could down the middle of the street passing a couple of strangely dressed old guys. He didn't care or let the memory register in his brain. Naruto was glad he was a football and baseball player, he dodged the cars before the cars could stop and hit campus running full forced knocking several people down.

The 300 building was in the center of campus, a twenty minute walked from all sides excluding the town part of the campus. Naruto ran there in a fraction of the time and burst through the doors and turned to the right grabbing Jiraiya's office door and slamming it open. He was sitting inside with, surprisingly, no other then his creative writing teacher Kakashi Hatake.

Naruto put a hand against the door for support and tried to gain his breath. "Fire… House is on fire." Naruto fell over on the ground breathing heavily. Jiraiya immediately picked up the phone and began dialing 911 while Kakashi dropped down next to Naruto and helped him into his seat.

"Hello, yes there's a fire at…" Jiraiya turned around and talked lowly into the phone while Kakashi knelt down next to Naruto. "You alright, Naruto?"

"Yeah, I got out luckily. Had to jump out of my window." He said breathing deeply and pulled his back pack off and checked to see that he had all of his school work there, the lap top was undamaged and the shirt wasn't too stupid to wear. It was. "I'll have to borrow someone's shirt…"

"They're already there; apparently someone called about twenty minutes ago and forewarned the station that some was going to set my house on fire." Jiraiya said setting the phone down. "Maybe I should start grading more leniently…"

"I talked to someone today," Naruto said then paused to choose his word carefully. "They mentioned that Quantity was going to start targeting me." Naruto said leaving out being kidnapped, Kisame's new TV and all the time he had spent with Sasuke in a cadaver lab and in his room. "They said that something bad might happen."

"Who told you?" Jiraiya said angrily. Kakashi held a hand up and turned to Naruto with a goofy look. "If you can tell us who told you, we might be able to get more answers out of them."

Naruto just shook his head, "I don't know who it was, they just stopped me on the street." Naruto lied. It was quite evident he lied, Naruto wasn't good at misleading people at all. He took a deep breath and relaxed back covering his face with his arms. It was a few seconds later a loud clicking noise sounded in the empty building and walked straight up to the door and knocked.

Jiraiya looked up, "Tsunade… Did I happen piss you off enough to set my house on fire?"

"No… I was going to ask you why Naruto ran on campus knocking half my students down." She said a little upset. Jiraiya grabbed her arm and led her outside the office and shut the door. "Someone set our house on fire."

"What?" She said quietly her face in a wondered state.

"Some called and forewarned the fire station, it was anonymous, traced it to a track phone that can be bought anywhere." Jiraiya said and leaned against the wall looking at the banners hanging for Shakespeare, Chaucer and Verne. "Naruto was also told by someone. He knows more then he's willing to say right now. Can you take him and try to wring out some answers?"

"Using me for your dirty work…" Tsunade shook her head and opened the door. "Naruto, come on, I have tea in my office, let's go get you settled down." She said in a warm motherly way. Naruto got up and grabbed his bag following her out of the office. She walked slowly and held the door open so Naruto could walk out first. Tsunade gave Jiraiya a nod and was off.. "So, your house? That sucks."

"Yeah, but I have my laptop and my school books. I'm good. I can mooch clothes off people if needed." Naruto said and looked up to twilight closing in.

Tsunade placed a hand on his shoulder. "My house burned down when I was little; my little brother was playing with matches. He had stolen them out of my mother's purse and was lighting them one by one then setting them down on a plate. He held onto one too long and burned his finger tips. He dropped it and the carpet caught fire and the entire house went up in flames in minutes.

"I tried to save him but failed at my attempt. My grandfather and great uncle were outside with my father, they saved us." She said and held up a small blue necklace. "My grandfather was so proud at me attempting to save him that he gave me this. He's the one who taught me about quality over quantity. Here." She said taking it off and handing it to Naruto as they reached the steps of the medical building. "Now you're the voice of the movement."

Naruto took the necklace and stared at it before putting it around his neck and stepping up to the medical building. "Thanks, Granny."

"No problem. You know…" She said but Naruto stopped. "Is something the matter."

"If you gave me the necklace to get information out of me…" He said taking it off, "then take it back. I don't have anything to tell." He held it out to her and Tsunade lost her smile.

She looked down for a minute then smiled again, "you're a lot smarter then Jiraiya gives you credit for. Keep it, I'm serious. You are the voice of Quality. He did want to know what more you knew."

"Some one's risked everything to warn me. I doubt they even thought about what could happen to them in that position." Naruto said and smiled putting the necklace back on. "I'm tired, I'm going over to a friends house. I'll come see Jiraiya tomorrow, tell him for me, would you?"

Tsunade nodded and watched as the blond turned around and began walking back towards the streets. the Black Bird house was just over eight blocks away. He could go there after he inspected his house, he wanted to walk by and see if it was alright or not. That would tack on four blocks to and then four blocks from.

Naruto decided to take a different route to the main entrance to avoid any of the people he might have shoved on his way in. He got to observe the other side of the science building, he hadn't been over there before, but it was nice. Very cheery with trees and plants just like the rest of the place.

It was then he noticed someone staring at him. 'Green hair… what is that? _"I'm not going to eat you, kid. That's Zetsu; he has green hair, avoid him."_ Crap.' Naruto quickly turned away and began walking as fast as he could from they guy in a large black trench coat with stout green hair.

Naruto turned back quickly to notice he was being followed by him when the guy Kisame had called Zetsu was stopped by a familiar enemy to him, Sasori. He wasn't alone though, a guy with long blond hair was there too. They stopped Zetsu in his tracks and diverted his attention long enough Naruto was able to run far enough away that he couldn't be followed.

---------( ---------- )---------

"Hey, Sasori?" Deidara called as he stopped watching out Sasori's office window. Sasori let a 'hum' out and kept his eyes carefully on the screen reviewing one of his student's presentations. He paused it and found what he was looking for. Someone had been foolish enough to plagiarize some work from the previous teacher as his own. "Why's Zetsu look like he's going to eat someone?"

"Eat someone?" Sasori grunted, got up and looked out the window easily spotting the black blob. He then followed the gaze of the man to a blond with spiky blond hair. "Come on. We don't have time to waste." Sasori said rushing out of his window.

"Wait... explain to me what were doing." Deidara said walking out normally. He had heard that Sasori was somewhat athletic, but to watch him jump down three flights of stairs and land running was new to Deidara. "Hey that was cool!"

Deidara however took the stairs and followed him outside to see Sasori running up to Zetsu. "Zetsu, good, I wanted to talk to you."

"God damn, you run fast when you want to, don't cha?" Deidara said catching up.

"This better be important." Zetsu said without any emotions. He turned and looked at Deidara. "Is she going to be okay?"

"I'm a guy!" Deidara yelled upset and grabbed his chest to grab his breath and began yelling angrily. "Just because I have long hair, it does not make me a chick! Look at Itachi, he's got his just as long and all the girls are like fawning over him. I have hairy-ass nerds telling me I'm hot!!"

"It's good to vent." Sasori said and then turned back to Zetsu. He pulled out a small piece of paper and a pen and scribbled a name and number down. "Someone has stolen some of the files from our old friend. They're vital to us; if we don't get them back we risk exposure. He's a student in my class, number 1762593. Get them back and leave him a little lesson about taking what's not his."

Sasori handed over the paper and waited while the man took it. Zetsu smiled and began down the pathway to the dorms. Sasori sighed, "that'll keep him busy for a while."

Deidara looked at him, "'Old friend?' We have an old friend? Can he get me out of this stupid organization!?"

"He nearly jeopardized everything by leaving and several times Madara has personally tried to kill him." Sasori said quickly adjusting his suit and turned away. "If we get the chance, I'll actually let you blow him up."

Deidara smiled, "that sounds way better then going to law school." Deidara began to go on about different grades of explosives and how they affect the human body. Sasori simply walked away. "Hey, where are you going?"

"Back to work. We only have so much time on us, we need to utilize it." Sasori said and disappeared around a corner leaving Deidara alone.

"Nobody listens to me!" Deidara cried and stared as he walked away. Stomping a foot he began start going on about how everybody hated him.

"I'll listen to you." Deidara turned around to see a geek in giant glasses and a plaid shirt. Deidara looked at him only to run away screaming "I'm not a chick!"

---------( ---------- )---------

Naruto stopped in front of his house and just stared at it, it was swarmed by fire fighters and police. Naruto began walking over and was caught by a firefighter. "I live here!" Naruto said breaking free from him only to go another foot and be stopped by a police officer. "Nobody through kid."

"I live here." Naruto said pulling out his ID showing the address. The officer looked at him and turned back to the house. "How bad is it?"

"Fronts all burned up, most everything else is fine though. We caught it pretty quickly. Should be able to replace the wall according to one of the firemen." He said grumpily. "We can't let you in until the fire marshal goes through and Okays it. Sorry, kid." Naruto nodded and just walked away leaving the police and fire fighters to do there job.

At least he had somewhere to go, Jiraiya would probably have to go and spend the night in his office. Jiraiya was tough through, he could manage that. Naruto crossed the street and began up Nestle street towards the Black Bird house wondering how exactly he would be received.

He tried to imagine that they'd just ignore him, but some how that wasn't going through his head. Instead it was Suigetsu and Karin yelling about how he could possibly endanger everything. He didn't know if Sasuke had found them or even if Sasuke would be there to protect him. He laughed at that thought, Sasuke protecting him.

---------( ---------- )---------

Sasuke, Karin and Suigetsu had arranged themselves at a small diner that was fiftes styled. They came there a lot, mainly because the cook had a crush on Karin so they got more food then usual. The three took to shoveling pancakes into their mouths like it was nobody's business. Suigetsu was the first to finish his plate. He swallowed and leaned back stretching. "You know what'd go good with pancakes… Anchovies."

"Ew!" Karin said loudly and looked down at her pancake to shove it in the middle of the table. When someone shoves their plate in, it means the food's abandoned and up for grabs. Suigetsu immediately grabbed the plate and began eating again.

"That's really disgusting, Suigetsu." Sasuke said and continued to eat normally staring out the window part of the time and at the TV the other part of the time. The TV was set to a 24-hour news station just for their city, Sasuke liked to come down here and watch it because it was far more interesting then the radio and the weatherman head a mullet.

Right now, Sasuke's eyes had drifted towards the screen to see the words 'HOUSE FIRE' and a picture of Naruto's house. Sasuke sighed and continued to eat. Suigetsu saw his reaction and looked at the screen. "That Naruto's house? Looks like you were right. Guess were having company tonight. We should pick up a board game."

"We're not having family night with him. He's just staying tonight, it's not like anyone wants him around." Karin said crossing her arms. Sasuke's facial expression dropped and both noticed that. "Oh…" She added quietly since she never admitted she was wrong.

Suddenly the waitress appeared with three giant sundaes. She smiled at them, "compliments of the chef." She set them down and walked away. Suigetsu laughed and took his quickly, "you know, if you started fucking him we'd get everything free."

Karin grabbed his collar and raised a fist almost hitting him. Sasuke quickly grabbed her wrist and threw her back against the seat. He sat back down calmly and grabbed a sundae.

Suigetsu stuck out a tongue. "We should bring Jugo in, since he's technically your dad, we might get a lot of free food. He spends a lot of time trying to impress you, imagine if we brought your father in." That Karin would think about, more free food means the more money they had to fix up the house and eventually buy it. "You know what'd go great in this…" Karin simply shoved her sundae at Suigetsu so she didn't have to hear the suggestion.


	7. Warning

It didn't occur to the blond that maybe he should have had someone walk with him to the house. The streets were filled with the worst kinds of people. As quickly as he could Naruto found the entrance house and rushed inside. He was expecting a person or two but was surprised to see that it was empty. Maybe Sasuke wasn't lying when they said they got everyone to stay away. Naruto gripped his back pack tightly with one hand and descended down the stairs carefully afraid he might fall. Reaching the bottom he looked to his left to see the giant metal door.

The thought of knocking came up, but then so did the thought that they might think it's weird and not answer. Naruto struggled with different options for a minute and reached a hand out to grab the handle. The door opened a little by without his help and a pale green pair of eyes stared down at him. "I thought I heard something…"

"Yea… um, my house…" Naruto tried to explain and Jugo opened the door up and waited for him to enter which took Naruto a minute to realize he wasn't going to be in trouble.

Jugo closed the door behind him and wandered back over to his couch to pick his puzzle book back up. The man looked up, "I heard about your house on my radio, it's why I came down here. I figured it would be better if someone was here when you came."

"Um… thanks?" Naruto said and he watched as Jugo cleared a spot off on the couch next to him and patted it. Jugo set his book down, "come here, I want to talk with you. It's very strange that Sasuke would bring someone here, even if Itachi ordered it. He's even told Itachi to go home a time or two."

Naruto walked over and set his bag down on the floor and sat down with Jugo turning slightly towards him. "First off, you do know who you're dealing with by staying here right?" Naruto shook his head quickly. "I'm Jugo." He said sticking out a hand. Naruto took it and was nearly crushed by his grip. Jugo pulled his hand away. "When I was fifteen, I was convicted of the murder of fourteen people over a span of three moths."

"What?" Naruto said and backed up a bit, Jugo stopped and looked at him.

"I didn't kill those people, my brother did. I told him how much I hated them, and he slaughtered them like animals. He died of a disease very soon afterwards, they caught and blamed me even though they had evidence for him. Luckily, the prosecutor wasn't twisted like the arresting officers were and had DNA tests done. My face was still plastered everywhere, and it didn't help that I got out of jail and the first thing I did was beat the arresting officer to a pulp.

"I spent a few years in jail, got out, beat someone else up, was put back in and then three years ago I ended up here after I was let out on parole. I finished it two years ago. I help run a tattoo parlor down town when I'm not high." Jugo said very blatantly. "And my stories not even the worst. Isn't that terrible?"

"Why are you telling me this?" Naruto asked looking at him a little scared. Jugo noticed and moved a little farther away.

"I want you to know what you're dealing with. I already told you that." He said and grabbed one of many SoBe's on the floor and tossed it at him. "It's not like we'll just up and kill you, Sasuke did tell us to behave after all."

Jugo grabbed his own drink and took a sip of it then looked at the bottle and grunted. "I hate strawberry daiquiri…" He set it down on the table and continued, "anyway, Karin. She's feisty, gets pissed off easily. It's mainly because she's used to being in charge of everything. When she was little she was riding in the car with her parents, they lost control of the car and it went tumbling over the edge of the high way rail. Flipped three times and burst into flames.

"Her parent's burned to death, a passing trucker saved her. She went insane for a while, became obsessed with being in control of everything, her life, her work, and the people around her. She was in foster until she was twelve, the old lady died. Had a heart attack from yelling at her cat; the cat ate her dentures and choked, also died. She thought she would go into an orphanage so she ran away three years ago and ended up here." Jugo stopped and picked up another SoBe making sure to read it first then opened and drank it.

"So, by some strange twist of fate, you all end up here?" Naruto asked staring at him. Jugo nodded.

"That's the gist of it." Jugo commented and set the drink down. "This is all very calming. You know, nobody ever talks anymore, it's always with these text messages and lol and shit like that." He said losing his train of thought, "you're a very calming person."

"Uh, thank you?" Naruto said uneasily and looked down at the drink. He hadn't touched yet and just let it sit there in his lap.

"Suigetsu, his background is a little messed up. He was found in a rain storm chewing on a raw fish down by the river when he was four. Nobody knew where he came from so he went into a foster home under a guy who was nice enough, big game hunter, liked sharp and pointy things. It's why Suigetsu's so ruthless if you piss him off, which I don't recommend by the way. He will kill you." Jugo said without losing his soothing mode of voice. "When he was eight he stabbed a full grown man to death, raided the body and left him there just covered in blood.

"State took him, put him in a new foster home arresting the guy, he killed himself later on. Suigetsu then decided he didn't need a foster family and killed the old lady he was with. Was supposed to be in juvy until he turned 18. Five years ago he met Sasuke there, Sasuke calmed him down drastically. They let him out and they put him under Kisame's charge after much insisting by Itachi and Madara. Decided Kisame was a 'worthy opponent' and just ran away three years ago. He goes back for the monthly check up by the state."

"What about Sasuke?" Naruto asked quickly. To be honest to himself, he accepted that he didn't care about the previous tales of tragedies besides that fact that Suigetsu needed to be feared.

"You know Sasuke's father was a cop right?" Naruto nodded. "Well he, when Sasuke was ten I think, discovered the largest heroin suppliers on this coast. Blew their cover right off. Pissed them all to Hell. A couple of the guys in the station were crooked; they went to his house and offed him and Sasuke's mother. Itachi and Sasuke were out at, surprisingly, karate lessons. They got home to see the guns being dropped by the guys. Itachi killed all but one. That one grabbed Itachi and broke his arm. Sasuke killed him… He began to think himself superior to everyone.

"The next part was two years later at school… And you laughed at him when he fell." Jugo stopped, "I don't need to explain that to you… But he decided he wasn't going to fight anymore since he simply lost control. He's walked around with the guilt every single day now, but he told me he wouldn't take it back." Naruto stopped and looked at him, "Said he wouldn't know what a real monster looked like if he hadn't beaten you like that."

"He said that…?" Naruto didn't really know how the beating had affected Sasuke, in fact he had never thought of it before. Being the kid that was beaten he wasn't aware that it would have left an impression on the beater.

"Yes, so now… He doesn't fight anymore. One day when Suigetsu decided to run, Sasuke told Madara he was tired of living under him and he'd check in every now and then. Only problem is he won't defend himself now unless he feels he's in danger of becoming seriously injured. Karin gets pissed when he comes home black and blue." Jugo stopped and took a deep swig of the Sobe and let out a refreshed gasp. "You know, nobody ever let's me just talk, they're always like half-crazed ex-felon!.... Something like that."

"Why would anyone hit Sasuke?" Naruto asked a little concerned and tightly gripped the bottle in his own hand. "Sasuke's so quiet. He never does anything to anyone."

"It's because he's gay." Jugo said flatly. There was a period of awkward silence between them which Jugo quickly diminished. "It's why he actually agrees to travel, he's accepted in other countries, he's even had a few boyfriends over there, but, he always has to leave them which is why he picked up on French. He's planning on getting the Hell out of here when he turns 18. Taking whatever money Madara gives him for college and just disappearing in Paris."

Naruto went quiet for a while and turned sitting on the couch and staring at the door waiting for someone to come through. Jugo looked at Naruto, "does it bother you?"

"What?" He asked finally opening the drink.

"Sasuke being gay?" Naruto shook his head. "That's good, it makes him uncomfortable when people are uncomfortable around him. You know…" Jugo stopped, and looked up. "If I show you something, you don't tell anyone I showed you it."

"Okay." Naruto said and followed quickly as Jugo got off the couch and took the stairs three at a time easily. Jugo was fast for someone who seemed so quiet. Naruto was lead into the kitchen then up the stairs to the second floor where Jugo simply pointed to the third floor stairs.

"Go up to the landing, there's some things up there, I don't particularly like looking at them. Black and white drawings bore me…" He shrugged and began walking away back to the basement. Naruto slowly went up the stairs to see what he was talking about and just saw papers and pencils everywhere in a small spot beneath a ceiling window. Sitting down he picked up a few pieces of paper and began looking at them.

The drawings were amazing, far better then Sai's by an immeasurable amount. He had a picture of Karin sitting on the couch with ear phones, Suigetsu and Jugo arm wrestling and then he picked up another one. This one he looked at and dropped. It was him. He flipped through more of them, they were mostly of him. Naruto smiling, in his football jersey, that one time he yelled at the lunch ladies.

"Oh my god." Naruto put a hand over his mouth as he set the papers back down. He quickly put them back in place and headed as fast down the stairs as he could and found Jugo sitting in the kitchen eating a bag of chips. "Find anything out?"

"He has a crush on me?" Naruto asked him and Jugo nodded offering him some of the chips. Naruto waved it away and went to scratching the back of his neck.

"I figured I should forewarn you." Jugo pushed past him and slowly headed up the stairs. "Don't dwell on it too long."

Naruto was really at a loss of thought; he couldn't very well dwell on it for too long, it wouldn't stick. It annoyed him because his brain immediately found another pathway when he wanted to comprehend it. Naruto found his way to the den and flopped down on the couch. Grabbing the SoBe Jugo had given him, he pulled out his laptop from his bag and turned it on to play solitaire.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

"Karin, go sweet talk him into cake." Suigetsu said trying to shove her off the seat. Sasuke immediately reached over and hit him upside the head with a spoon. Suigetsu began rubbing his head. "Hey, I'm still hungry."

"You've eaten a plate and a half of pancakes, two milkshakes and half of a pizza." Karin said quickly and looked at him. Suigetsu just shrugged, "give it some time to hit your stomach you moron."

Sasuke's phone started going off and the two went dead silent. "It's Itachi." He said and they relaxed a bit as he hit the screen. "_Salut. _I'm out at the diner… Ricky's….yea, it's the one on fifth street." He shut his phone off and sighed. Sasuke immediately stood up, "we have to get to Black Bird."

"Is something going on?" Karin asked getting up along with the bleach blond who filched over the crust off her plate. She shot him a dirty look and followed Sasuke out onto the street where he had the car parked. He flung open the door and threw himself down waiting as the two of them argued then fit themselves into the front as well. Suigetsu won the spot closest to Sasuke and smiled widely at her.

Sasuke didn't waster any time and sped out of the area as fast as he could without attracting attention. Suigetsu at one point had to hold on to the dashboard to prevent falling on Karin. "Holy shit! Dude, what's the rush?"

"Someone tipped off the cops that three runaways were at Ricky's diner on fifth street, all in black, one with black hair, one with white and a red head who was possibly kidnapped. Sound familiar? Apparently a certain chef tipped them off." Sasuke said and pulled a drift move around a corner and shot onto Raven Street.

"The chef, the one with the hots for Karin?" Suigetsu slapped his forehead, "I am never going back there again. How could we be that stupid?"

"We mistook concern for adoration, they mingle easily." Sasuke said from experience. "Just be thankful Itachi has a police scanner as his favorite hobby."

Sasuke pulled right in front of Black Bird and got out grabbing his bag from the back seat. Suigetsu and Karin were already running inside the house next door while he was locking the car up. Sasuke slammed the door and proceeded to go into the building jumping down the stairs. He grabbed the door on his way in and pulled it shut locking it tightly. They then all turned to see Naruto sitting on the couch looking over at them.

"Is Jugo here?" Sasuke asked without missing a beat.

Naruto fumbled with his words but eventually got out the answer: "He went upstairs."

"Get your things and go to your room." Sasuke said and walked past him towards the stairs. Vaulting up the stairs he ran through the house. When he hit the second floor stairs he yelled. "Jugo!" He climbed up the third steps and stopped on the landing looking down at his scattered drawings. They were out of place. He heard Jugo come down and saw Sasuke staring at the pages. "Did you do this?"

"I made him look through them." Sasuke's head quickly turned away. "He's not offended by it… Sasuke. It's better that he knew." Jugo said softly as he walked down and placed a hand on his head.

Sasuke slapped his hand off and began downstairs. "I decide what's best." He growled lowly and was dodged by Naruto who had his bag around his shoulders. As he passed Sasuke caught a glance of something directed at him, Naruto had smiled at him.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

"You need to come see this, Sasori!" Deidara laughed as he followed a video on YouTube of sparkles making a miniature mushroom cloud. "These kids are geniuses!"

"Shouldn't you be studying for your bar exams?" Sasori asked annoyed by the ruckus. He quickly turned back to the file and began grading the reports quickly. Deidara then began applauding the video. "Don't you have somewhere to be?!"

"Um… No. Not really. All the other law students think I'm a chick…" He said upset and kept watching the video. "You're the only friend I have… That knows I'm a guy."

Sasori sighed. He finished correcting the files and closed them. "All right, I'll amuse you, what's the video?" He said getting up from his main desk over to the side where Deidara sat. He quickly restarted the video and let it play through. When it finished Sasori just shrugged, "I've seen you make bigger explosions with things made from vegetables."

"Why thank you!" Deidara said happily, "Maybe we should get a video camera."

"You know, the comments will all read 'that chicks hawt.'" Sasori walked back over to his desk. He leaned back in his chair, set his feet up on the desk and just stared up at the ceiling taking a moment for himself.

"Hey, aren't you wasting time contemplating?" Deidara asked him turning the chair around. Sasori shrugged in response and sighed deeply wishing he was somewhere useful. "Yell at me for wasting time and then he goes and does it himself."

"No, they're late…" Sasori groaned and sat foreword suddenly. "Deidara, you've very opinionated, what do you think of Madara?"

"Me? He's a right prick but he had good tastes in suits, bought me this one so I wouldn't snitch on him. Fits like a glove that was made of Italian silk and specially tailored for style." Deidara said loudly, "other than that, I hate him. I don't want to be in the 'organization.'"

"Then you're in the right place…" Sasori said softly and the door burst open to show Kisame and Itachi walking in with several files in there arms. They looked at Deidara as they piled the files on his desk. Sasori took notice. "He's not a problem."

"Good, I've had enough problems for one day…" Itachi growled and scratched at the stubble that was growing on his face. He sat down on the corner of Sasori's desk and turned to Deidara. "Are you sure we can trust him, Sasori. I know he hates Madara…"

"I think so." Sasori said, "Plus, he's the only one who can decipher the legal jargon." Sasori pointed out to him. "What's eating you today?"

"Some prick called in Sasuke and his friends as runaways with possibility of a kidnapped child. It was the chef of a restaurant; I'm going to stop by later and let Kisame exchange words with him in a dark alley." Itachi said angrily.

"He doesn't like blood on his hands." Kisame said trying to poke fun at Itachi. The sediment wasn't picked up by the Uchiha.

"You're doing something behind Madara's back, aren't you?" Deidara asked turning around in the chair to lean against the back. "How pissed is he going to be?"

"He's not, because he's not going to find out." Itachi said quickly and Kisame cracked his knuckles for extra effect. Deidara looked at the three somewhat nervously before Sasori picked up a file and held it up from behind his desk. "Deidara, interpret this for us."

Itachi also pulled out a small, cheap track phone in a ziplock bag. He threw it at him. "Get rid of that while you're at it, and don't leave finger prints on it."


	8. The Rules

Sasuke paced back and forth in the kitchen listening to his brother's voice from his iPhone. Sasuke nodded habitually and hung up the phone letting the voice message take affect. His brother would protect him no matter what. Sasuke shoved his phone in his pants pocket and turned to walk out letting a hand slip to the light switch to turn it off.

By the time Sasuke hit the basement stair's Karin and Jugo were already divulged into the conversation of what had happened. Suigetsu on the other hand was busy going through and messing up Jugo's crossword puzzles with dirty words. Sasuke walked in and stopped in his normal talking place and just waited for them to notice him. Once Suigetsu looked up he slapped Jugo's back gently and they all turned and looked at him.

"Kisame's going to take care of the chef. We probably should keep going back there to help them avoid suspicion. Until that happens, Karin's going to get her ID since Suigetsu and I both have ours."

Karin nodded silently as they watched Sasuke and noticed something wasn't right. Sasuke seemed distant and struggling to get his thoughts in order which was highly abnormal for him. "Sasuke, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, um…" He said trying getting his train of thought right. Sasuke's thought process was being overridden by some simple basic images. It was a phantasmagoria of Naruto at different points ending with that smile in the hallway. He rubbed his forehead slightly and found the words. "Madara might to invite me to join Quantity movement tomorrow, which means meetings and shit like that."

"Are you going to?" Suigetsu asked quickly. "That'd kind of fuck with things, wouldn't it? Especially since we have the opposition leader upstairs."

"I'm going to say no if he does." Sasuke said and walked over pulling the house rules out of his wallet and setting them down on the table for them all to see. It was an old piece of paper that had been stained and ripped. It had three simple rules scribbled on it. '1. DON'T JUDGE. 2. MEMBERS ONLY. 3. FOLLOW THE RULES.' "I want to add a new rule."

"New rule?" Jugo asked quietly. "I don't think we need a new rule."

"With us having Naruto here and Madara at our backs, I'm afraid we may become compelled to join a side. I don't want that to happen. The best course for Black Bird is always neutrality in any fight, we stay out, we're unaffected which means were safe." Sasuke pulled a pen out of his back pocket and knelt down next to the table. "I want to add rule number four. Neutrality."

"I do like that." Jugo said simply and looked at it. "I do think we should put the rules somewhere better too, your wallet could get stolen."

"Let's spray paint them on the wall!" Suigetsu said excitedly. He grabbed his backpack and pulled out a large can of red spray paint. He smiled and looked at everybody waiting for a reaction.

"Why do you have spray paint?" Karin asked looking at him.

"Well… I can alright?" He said not coming up with any good answer. Sasuke got up and took the can looking at the instructions on it. He went silent for a second and then sighed. "Can we, Sasuke?"

Sasuke began shaking the can, "Karin open the door. Suigetsu, Jugo, go get some old sheets, this stuff might drip."

"Yes!" Suigetsu said and quickly ran up the stairs happily. Jugo slowly followed him actually knowing where the linens were kept. Karin slowly walked across the floor and turned to him, "so, they're going to kill that guy?"

"Mm-hm." Sasuke said and watched as she opened the door then grabbed a cigarette out of his pocket with a lighter. "Go get Naruto, we've had our meeting. See if he wants to come down."

"Alright, just stay by the door with that death stick." She said shrewdly and ascended the stairs her black heels clicking loudly on the wood. Sasuke quickly sighed and put them away figuring he should wait.

Karin got to the first floor in time to move out of the way of Suigetsu running through with several holey sheets. She acted quickly and tugged the sheet back in a swift movement and kept walking to here Suigetsu fall down a couple stairs and swear loudly at her. She just laughed and passed Jugo who had another sheet.

Karin went up to the second floor, walked down the hall and promptly knocked twice on the closed door. She waited a minute and the door opened wide to show Naruto looking out at her a bit surprised. "We're going to spray paint the basement, Sasuke wanted to know if you wanted to come down."

"Uh sure." He said and walked out closing the door behind him. Karin immediately began walking down the hall leaving him to follow her quickened pace. Completely ignoring the jock behind her Karin flew down the stairs and found the basement where she sat down on the couch and folded her arms.

Naruto strolled down to see the boys busy spreading sheets by the wall. He stepped down and leaned against the opposite wall watching them. Karin coughed getting the boys attention. "I think we should plan it out, you know, make it look nice."

"Why?" Suigetsu asked confused. "It's just us… and him." He said pointing at Naruto. "'Sides, Black Bird wasn't planned, neither were the rules. I say we free hand them where ever we feel like, starting with Karin's face."

"Go fall onto a knife." Karin yelled standing up and clenching her fists. She took a step foreword and Sasuke finally turned to her shaking his head slowly. Karin calmed down some, but Suigetsu wasn't finished.

"After you, pet," Was said as warmly as he could possibly speak so it would sting her deeply. Suigetsu smiled through his sharpened teeth and Karin stormed off upstairs grunting. "Ah… bitch free at last."

Sasuke shook his head again in disappointment. "Jugo."

The giant man quickly slapped the back of Suigetsu head hard enough he was sent stumbling back a few feet. Suigetsu rubbed his head and laughed, "gonna start something big man?"

Suigetsu was reaching for a small pocket knife but Sasuke was quicker then he was by a lot. Suigetsu halted as Sasuke steadily held his knife to the teen's throat. "Behave or go to Kisame's."

Suigetsu nodded simply and they both put their knives away. The three just carried on like nothing happened which surprised Naruto a bit. Sasuke finished shaking the can and tossed it to Jugo. Jugo took the can and spray painted in large non-uniform letters BLACK BIRD followed by a colon then under lined the entire thing. Jugo then spray painted the first rule and handed off the can to Sasuke to step back and look at it. "It's lob-sided."

"It's fine." Sasuke said and was going to put up the second rule but was stopped by Suigetsu. "If you're going to go on about the guest thing…" Suigetsu stepped back and closed his mouth. Sasuke quickly wrote the second rule in scribbled words.

He handed off the can to the Suigetsu and walked back next to Naruto and leaned against the wall holding out the rules with number four added. "You put up four, we had to add it because of you after all."

Naruto looked down at the single word while Suigetsu was busy trying to paint the words 'follow the rules' in the shape of a fish. For improvising it, he actually did quiet well and it looked awesome. Suigetsu stopped and looked at Sasuke who put a hand behind Naruto and shoved him foreword. "Go put it up there."

Naruto faltered over the next few steps as Suigetsu handed him the spray paint and took his place next to Sasuke. Suigetsu smiled and looked at him mockingly then whispered, "are you trying to get him to move in or something? Including him in group activities, making us be nice to him, gawking at him all the… Ow…"

Sasuke had pinched Suigetsu hard on the neck. He turned back to the painting and smiled as he watched Naruto accidentally hold the can wrong and spray his hand. He laughed a bit with a warm undertone and Suigetsu shook his head mumbling that he was right after all and began upstairs. Sasuke stopped and looked at him. "Where are you going?"

"Talk to Karin, complain about you. The norm. It's better then watching you." He disappeared on the last step and vanished from his sight. While he had been focused on his best friend Jugo had been helping Naruto with the spray paint, but it wasn't helping.

"Don't just spray in bursts, keep it going smoothly." Jugo said and Naruto tried but the can slipped and he sprayed his other arm. "You're having a lot of bad luck with this."

"I can't get it right…" Naruto said shaking the can again. He pointed it up and took a deep breath before he felt something warm on top of his hand and looked to see Sasuke was there. "Huh?"

"Smooth." Sasuke said and pressed both their fingers down and made a large 'N' then took his hand away. "It's just like if you were painting." Sasuke moved back and Naruto finished quickly. His work was the worst of the four's.

"You finished it, at least." Sasuke said trying to stay positive and patted him on the shoulder. Sasuke stood up and stretched taking off his sweater and tossing it down on the blue couch. He turned his attention back to Naruto, "Come on let's get the paint off you."

"That sounds good." Naruto muttered dropping the can and standing up. Sasuke walked up stairs into the kitchen and turned on the water while Naruto came up slowly looking at much paint he was covered with. He looked down and saw a giant red paint blot on his shirt and rolled his eyes. "Shirts ruined too… Damn it."

Sasuke bent down and went through the cupboard underneath the sink and grabbed dish soap, it was all they had in the way of cleaning, and a scrubbing pad. Sasuke stepped to the side and grabbed one of Naruto's hands shoving it beneath the stream of water. He took his time and slowly began cleaning the paint off. Naruto stood their distraught with his hand being cleaned. "I can do it."

"It's no bother." Sasuke said quickly. In all reality, he was just trying to hold Naruto's hand, and it was working as long as Naruto would comply with him. He knew he needed to keep him distracted so he could continue and he went through his mind quickly to pull out the only paint story he knew.

"We had Suigetsu paint the house for us, he set the open paint can on a ladder, ladder fell over and paint went everywhere on him. Karin had to sit for eight hours scrubbing him with bleach and an SOS pad. He was bright red for two days, it was so hilarious." Sasuke said laughing, "If Karin calls him lobster boy, that's what it's from."

"That had to be painful." Naruto said smiling but he didn't laugh. Sasuke knew he couldn't hold him much longer. Sasuke finished Naruto's right hand. That was the easy one since Naruto was on Sasuke's left, they didn't have to be that close. Naruto's left forearm was a different matter. Sasuke let go of his hand and grabbed Naruto's arm and held the spot of spray paint under the faucet. Naruto sighed, "I need to get better at spray paint."

"Spray painting is not a highly wanted skill unless you're going to be joining a gang." Sasuke said and began taking off the paint a little by little as gently as he could. Naruto simply muttered 'I guess' and focused his attention on the fridge. Sasuke looked over at him and noticed, "You hungry or something?"

"Yeah, I haven't eaten since lunch, but I don't have any money on me." Sasuke finished and set the soap and pad in the sink to dry. Naruto pulled his arm back and began shaking them both off in a goofy manor. Sasuke pulled his wallet out after struggling through all the things he had in his bondage pants. He flipped it open quickly and held out a five to the blond. Naruto stared at it for a second. "No, it's okay."

"I force feed Karin all the time; you're just a bit more fight." Sasuke said and shoved the bill against his chest and patted it walking by. "It's unhealthy not to eat." His hand moved away and he went upstairs shoving his wallet away.

Naruto grabbed the bill and looked over at the fridge again. Naruto tossed the bill in the jar on top of the frigde and suddenly felt completely uncomfortable. Turning he saw Karin and Suigetsu by the door way staring at him. Karin went to take a step foreword but Suigetsu clamped a hand on her shoulder keeping her back. He turned to her, hissed "don't be too mean," and walked around her going upstairs. Karin started towards him again and held out a hand looking him square in the eye. "I'm Karin."

Naruto paused for a second matching the intensity of her gaze. He grabbed her hand shaking it firmly. "I'm Naruto."

She quickly retracted her hand. "I don't like you." Karin stated plainly. "I don't like you being here and I definitely don't like you leading Sasuke on."

Naruto tried to object in someway but stammered giving her room to continue. "I know you're not gay. With everything you're doing, you're giving him the wrong impression. You're letting him think he stands a chance with you! That's…!" She let out an inaudible grunt of anguish.

Karin quickly stopped off upstairs leaving Naruto feeling guilty and a bit upset. Sighing Naruto opened the fridge, he was impressed by the number of lunchables and grabbed the first one in reach and heard stomping up the third story stairs. Nervously, he began to dash up stairs to his room.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Unbeknownst to Karin, Suigetsu or Naruto, Sasuke was perched on the third floor landing surrounded by his drawings. He was lulling in the notion of their skin touching in his mind until he had hypnotized himself into a state of warmth and fuzziness. Suigetsu came upstairs unobservant went into his room muttering "I hope she doesn't kill him."

Sasuke turned his stare over to the first floor stairs waiting to see something on this matter. Sasuke was well aware of the strife Naruto was causing, he knew that it would happen with anyone brought over here, but Itachi wanted him to shelter Naruto. He thought little on that though but his mind soon wandered back into its daze and he wanted to draw. He quickly grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper arranging himself on the stairs but then stopped when he heard Karin's banshee wail.

"You're letting him think he stands a chance with you! That's…!" Karin's heels hit hard against the stairs. She stopped and saw Sasuke. Sasuke's eyes were drawn away to the stairs immediately before him with a blank expression. "Sasuke, I…"

"Get out of my sight." He said coldly. Sasuke watched as she marched past him and turned to ascend to the third floor. Sasuke sighed and tossed the paper and the chalk behind him; he lost his will to draw.

A few seconds passed and Naruto came jogging up the stairs. His head jerking, Naruto noticed the lone Uchiha and attempted to stop in the hall. Unfortunately the stop was too sudden and he tried to counter act it with a turn but ended up falling down on his side. The lunchable went flying out of his hand and towards the stairs.

Needless to say Sasuke knew what to do in this situation, but he felt somewhat unnerved with it. Taking a few steps down, Sasuke grabbed the lunchable and walked over to where Naruto was getting up. Calmly the young Uchiha offered his hand as an aid.

Naruto took it and was ripped from the floor before Sasuke. Their eyes meet. Sasuke got lost quickly as he entwined himself in thoughts he would like to happen. He wanted to be able to step foreword and kiss him. He wanted to know what Naruto tasted like. Sasuke wanted to feel the heat coming off his body as they pressed together. He wanted it to lead to one of their rooms. What he wanted, he couldn't go through with.

Sasuke looked down at the lunchable and smiled, "You know, Jedi's don't get cookies."

"And what if I'm not a Jedi?" Naruto said slowly. Sasuke's head lurched up at the sentence. It sounded too much like an invitation. He was nervous about it and let go of his hand giving Naruto back the lunchable.

"If your going to be a Sith, get some better reflexes. Sith don't fall down, we kick people down." Sasuke said and began down his way to his room. Walking by Naruto felt weird, he knew he shouldn't leave the conversation where it was at.

There was the rustling of plastic behind him as Sasuke opened his door. "Here." He turned around to see Naruto walk by and shove the cookies in his hand. "I'll work on the reflexes thing later." He smiled and disappeared into his room.

Sasuke opened his hand up to look at them and heard a noise behind him. He felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Suigetsu reach over and take a cookie. "Hey, you alright Sasuke?"

"I… yeah. Here." He said and handed the other two cookies to Suigetsu. Sasuke disappeared in his room. Suigetsu looked at the cookies and smiled engulfing them in one large chomp.

Inside his room Sasuke walked over to the wall between him and Naruto. Delicately he put a hand there followed by his forehead. In his head he wished he could just knock out the wall and go in there, but then he would have a large hole to explain to Jugo who would end up fixing it. He moaned in distress and flung himself around to fall to the floor staring into his room throwing a fit.


	9. Zetsu

Sasuke was sitting with Itachi on Kisame's front porch steps discussing the current turn of events. The turn of events was that Tsunade had spun the house fire along with Jiraiya. They made it look like what it was, a personal attack from quantity. Madara was not happy that they had found out so soon and was bitching to everyone he could find who knew he actually did it. Most were busy with college, so Itachi had been elected.

Itachi turned his phone off after the third call from their uncle Madara. Sasuke as a precaution also had his off and they just sat there talking about it. Itachi sighed and turned to his little brother who was staring off into the street. "Sasuke, Madara put Zetsu on this."

"Wait, Zetsu?" Sasuke snapped out of his dream-like state and scrunched his face thinking. "As in ate his cell mate, escaped and ate a few more people?"

Itachi nodded. "Madara's decided Nagato's caution about killing your little friend is unfounded. He's going to have Zetsu off him sometime today and let Zetsu fall for it."

"He's not my friend." Sasuke said in defense, from what he didn't know.

"So, how long are you going to let your delusions run your mind?" Itachi asked quickly catching his lie. Sasuke shrugged the question off. "Don't want to come out of your head?"

"I like my head: I don't get beaten up in my head. I don't have to deal with a psychopathic uncle who thinks he can become immortal in my head." Sasuke sighed and stood up checking the time. "Well, I'm going back on babysitter duty."

"Be careful, and don't be too late to dinner with Madara this time. He actually likes you; you can get a lot of money from him." Itachi reminded him as the young Uchiha walked away from down the street. "Hey, what time is it?"

"It's nearly two." Sasuke said and picked up the pace, his brother would realize sooner or later he had skipped out on his last block class. Itachi never did anything really when Sasuke skipped out on class, he merely looked extremely disappointed. Sasuke couldn't withstand his brother looking like that because of something he did.

Sasuke's timing, as usual, was uncannily perfect. As he situated himself across the street from the school near a building he heard the bell go off. It wasn't long before the high school students poured out into the streets and disappeared from sight.

Naruto and his group were late coming out as normal. They were in a giant huddled mass with loud talking people. Actually, it was two loud talking people: Ino the varsity cheer captain and Sakura the varsity wrestling captain. To Sasuke's knowledge, they had gotten along when they were younger than got into an argument over their hair. Since then, neither has really shut up around the other.

The rest of the group comprised of Naruto, and the transfer student and the senior in charge of the art club Sai. Chouji was bringing up the back along with Shikamaru. Chouji was the only junior to have won the state wide food cook off and then eat his and five other entries. Shikamaru was the only one besides Naruto that Sasuke didn't mind. He was quiet, intelligent, and a bit of a smart ass. He was the only one in most of Sasuke's classes that didn't say anything bad about him.

They were slow moving with so many people, Sasuke was able to stalk them without notice easily. The group went to a place that's a hotspot for high school and college students. The street was called College Row and every building was especially for students. Bookstores, restaurants, and even some arcades dotted the street.

Sasuke watched as they stopped in front of a small Italian bistro so Ino and Sakura could yell about it. It was annoying, very annoying. He took a second and thought about who would best handle this situation and how. Suigetsu with pinecones. Sasuke looked on the ground, picked a few up from under a tree and looked for a place to hide. He saw a spot between buildings and tossed the pinecones as hard as he could.

Sasuke was fast, he was gone before they turned their heads and was in the alleyway a half a block away with a cigarette pulled out. He was about to light it when something familiar caught his eye. His shirt, the one he lent to Naruto. Sasuke sighed and put the cigarette away, "Hi."

"You threw the pinecones, didn't you?" Naruto said crossing his arms and looking at him slightly disappointed. "It was uncalled for."

"Well, it served two good purposes as I see it." Sasuke said and adjusted his backpack. "One is it made them shut up, and two is it made you come over here without the group."

Naruto let his arms down, "what is it then?"

"You remember Kisame mentioning the guy with the green hair, Zetsu. Madara told him to kill you." There words were said flatly with no surprise or anticipation to them. "Since I'm your current babysitter, I felt I should warn you."

"Then why didn't you just throw the pinecones at me?" Naruto asked calming down.

"Would they have shut up?" Sasuke snickered and began to walk away. "Stay in your group, it's the safest place you can be right now."

Naruto just nodded and ran back to his group. The girls were both still rubbing their heads in adgitation. As Naruto approached he began lying. "It was some kids who thought the yelling was annoying. Are you two alright?"

"Yeah," Sakura said shaking it off.

Ino began to whine however, "Someone threw pinecones at me because they thought I was annoying?"

"Yeah, let's just go inside and get some food already." Naruto said and the girls went in quickly and silently for once. There was a coughing noise from behind Naruto. He turned around to Shikamaru, "Since when do you lie?"

Naruto could have told Shikamaru the truth, but right now, he didn't feel like it. "In this situation, it's called for. Can you drop it?"

"Yeah, whatever." He muttered and the rest of the group entered the small restaurant.

Sasuke watched from a different block as they disappeared. As his head turned he saw the green haired man standing in between two buildings with a huge crowd of college students moving in front of him. He looked upset by it. Sasuke stalked quietly behind the buildings and crept up the back entrance to the alley. He waited until the college students were gone before he decided to approach the hunter who hadn't noticed him standing right behind him. "Lose something?"

Zetsu jumped a little and turned around to look at Sasuke. The young Uchiha was patiently waiting for something to happen, and it was the fact that anything could happen which caused him to worry. What happened next was a little worse then he had expected considering that Zetsu did know who he was, they had met before. And even if he didn't remember, he looked like Itachi with shorter hair, there was a huge resemblance.

Sasuke found himself with a gun pointed in his face. He didn't mean to let the expression slip out, but it did. For a second he seriously thought he was going to die, but Zetsu hesitated and that was enough for Sasuke to regain his footing. Playing it off, Sasuke laughed and smiled at the villain like he was insane. "You'd be much scarier with a knife… Or maybe a fork?"

"Huh…?" Zetsu said somewhat surprised. Not once in all his years had anyone laughed at him while he was pointing a gun in between their eyes. Zetsu took a moment for himself, observed Sasuke quickly and then pulled the gun back a bit. "You're Madara's nephew, aren't you?"

"Don't tell me I have a resemblance to him. I'd have to take that as an insult." Sasuke smartly chirped. He looked at the gun and flat out ripped it from Zetsu's hand to look it over. "Don't tell me he only pays you enough to buy a woman's gun? Pathetic, it'd probably do more damage being thrown."

Zetsu looked down at him and shook his head. "You're just as twisted as Madara. It's bad enough there's one of him in the world."

"Actually, I think I'm worse then Madara. You see, Madara can't get out here and freely kill for himself." Sasuke said still playing with the gun calmly. He suddenly stopped and turned it pointing the barrel straight at Zetsu's nose. Zetsu took a step back and froze. "However, I'm pretty calm with killing, I've done it before with my bare hands, pulling a trigger is nothing more to me then swatting a fly."

"Whoa, calm down kid, I was just kidding. I didn't realize who you were for a second." Zetsu said trying to get Sasuke to put the gun down. Sasuke looked at the gun, flipped it around and handed it back to him.

Laughing, Sasuke began to walk away down the alley away from College Row. "You should have seen your face. It was a million dollar shot too; too bad you had to miss it." Sasuke stopped and turned to him, "come on."

"I have to…" Zetsu was about to let out what he was assigned to do. The words refused to come out though and he was left mumbling.

"Would you rather have Madara angry at you, or me?" Sasuke growled commandingly. He waited a minute for a response. Zetsu began walking foreword shoving the gun away. Sasuke remembered it had his finger prints on it. Sasuke turned around and held out his hand making Zetsu stop. "Give me the gun."

"Uh… Sure, whatever." Zetsu said nervously as he handed the deadly weapon over to a boy he thought insane. Sasuke didn't have a good place to put the gun. He would be walking in front, Zetsu could just grab it if he put it in the back of his waistband. He couldn't reach it if Zetsu tried something and he put it in his backpack. Sasuke opted for one of his lower bondage pants pockets; it's hard to steal a gun when it's in a moving pocket.

"So, is all you do kill for Madara?" Sasuke asked him as they walked down a back street towards the college library. Sasuke was in there all the time, Zetsu face was plastered all over the librarian's station. The minute he walked in there, he would be recognized and someone would call the cops.

"Um, mostly, sometimes I'll help out in the lab, I do have a degree in chemistry, though, I cheated on all the tests, but I do know the information." Zetsu confessed. He watched as Sasuke kept his head straight knowing exactly where he was leading the killer to. "Where are we going?"

"What's the research your doing with Madara?" Sasuke said overriding his question.

"It's above me; I'm only a chemist, not a genetic researcher." Zetsu said and was about to stop flat on the street when Sasuke did and turned looking across at a large white and red building. "Hm, the library?"

"Do you know how I spotted you?" Sasuke asked him. He was using the question as a delay tactic to find someone around the library he knew. Zetsu shook his head. "You were the only person standing still on a busy street, you weren't even doing anything. Just standing and watching. I'm surprised someone else didn't point you out. Consider yourself luck I found you.

"You taught yourself didn't you?" Sasuke asked like Zetsu should be ashamed of himself, he then spotted a group of Sasori's genetics students settling into the grass next to the library. "You should think about getting lessons. Go into the library and pick me up a book on minor religions."

"Why can't you go do it?" Zetsu asked him. "All you need is an ID."

"I'm a high schooler." Sasuke explained waiting.

"Damn…" 'He's that scary that young…' "I'll be back in a minute." Zetsu left for across the street, by the time he had reached the doors to the library, Sasuke already was on the phone leaving an anonymous tip for the police. The Uchiha walked across the street and moved in with Sasori's Genetics group.

Instantly welcome and thought to be Sasori's protégée, Sasuke sat down and joined in the conversation. They covered a variety of topic including Monday's homework, Quality versus Quantity, and last night's party where some girl name Kiki got drunk and fell off a balcony. The small group was joking about the girl's accident when four police cars barreled onto the street and drifted to a stop in front of them.

The group remained quiet and watched as the police ran into the library drawing guns. A comment came from one of the students and they all laughed: "Someone must have a pretty big fine."

"I saw that guy they have on the wanted posters go in there. How stupid can you be?" Another laughed until they saw the man they were mocking walk up at the group. Zetsu was pissed and grabbed Sasuke by the collar lifting him from the ground. "You set me up!"

Sasuke hit him square in the jaw and he was dropped on the ground. The cops were still inside, Sasuke could act. "I never did any of this, got it?"

"Sure thing, professor." One of the students said backing away from the green haired murderer. Sasuke gripped his fists together and launched an attack on Zetsu. Zetsu was met by a knee to his chest; Sasuke spun around and kicked him back against the grass. It was then the cops emerged from the library, Sasuke quickly sat down next to a guy and stole his text book from him 'shh-ing' the group. The police quickly picked up Zetsu and began walking around looking for whomever knocked him out.

The group of course was interview as they were the closest in proximity. They lied well though, they claimed it was a big guy who was upset he ran into him in a school tee shirt with a shaved head. The lie worked well enough and the cop left letting Sasuke get pictures of Zetsu being carried away. Sasuke got up and handed the book back. "Thanks for keeping quiet."

"Thank you for explaining Monday's lecture." One of the students commented and they broke out laughing. "That guy ate people, he deserves it." "You're one of us." "We have to protect our walking text book." They broke out laughing again. Sasuke waved to them and began to walk away, "Later, teach!"

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Sasuke thought it was funny that when he called Suigetsu to tell him what had happened, Kisame answered and told him where they were. Sasuke had to think of how hilarious it would be going into the Italian Bistro to see both Naruto's group and Black Bird in there at the same time, however, a slightly different scenario was played out.

Walking up Sasuke noticed Naruto sitting outside the restaurant cuddled into somewhat of a fetal position. He wanted to stop and ask Naruto what was wrong but he had to tell everyone else first. Sasuke walked by, Naruto didn't raise his head. He went inside and saw Naruto's friends, most of them looking quite angry at one another. He ignored them and walked over to an empty chair next to Kisame and quickly flipped through the phone displaying the pictures of Zetsu's capture.

The phone was passed to Suigetsu and Karin to see as well. Suigetsu smiled, "you beat the shit out of him, didn't you? You can see the bruise on his face."

"He was threatening to kill me, I had to do something." Sasuke said quietly as if it was some big secret. "We lied to the cops, don't go spreading it around."

"We?" Karin asked handing the phone back. "You have another set of friends? I thought we were exclusive."

"Two words Sasuke will never say to Karin: we, exclusive." Suigetsu joked cruelly and was quickly hit upside the head by Kisame. "What was that for?"

"Behave in public." Kisame said lightly and continued eating. Suigetsu snarled and excused himself to the bathroom. Kisame sighed, "I can't wait until he turns eigthteen, I'm going to beat the shit out of him."

"Set up a time so I can come and watch." Karin replied enthusiastically. "So, are you going to join us?"

Sasuke shook his head and stood up, "I have to change and head off to Madara's. I'll see you guys at home though, Okay?"

"We were going to hit a movie, Jugo gets out in twenty minutes." Karin sighed, "you don't have to go… He left."

"Haha." Suigetsu said coming back to the table. "What part of 'Madara is his legal guardian' does no one get?" Karin shrugged and quietly ate her food stuck with two people she would rather ditch.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Sasuke walked outside passing the window and moved to the other side of Naruto to sit down. He sighed heavily and waited as the blond slowly raised up his head and saw who it was. Naruto jolted, "what about being seen in public?"

"Are you embarrassed by me? Most of the people on the street don't know me, some will recognize you though, and moping isn't very good for what you do." Sasuke explained and shifted his legs, he felt the gun move. 'Shit, I still have to hide it.'

"I'm not embarrassed," Naruto said slowly and straightened out. "Is that guy still going to kill me?"

"He's in jail, you don't have to worry about it." Sasuke said and stood up stretched, "just keep your eyes peeled for others who seem spooky. I'll see you later." Sasuke began walking away when he heard footsteps behind him. He turned his head to see that Naruto was following him. "You can't follow me, I have to go to Madara's house for dinner."

"My house is this way, I want to see how it's coming along. Someone told me Jiraiya called some workers in to fix the wall." Naruto said a little upset. Sasuke noted the blond's expression but didn't say anything. "I hope it's finished, I'd like to get back to life as normal."

"Normal doesn't exist; there are just habitually repetitive actions and days." Sasuke stated quickly, "you should be happy to break out once in a while, even if due to something bad. Once you get the swing back it won't be mundane."

"Who uses the word 'mundane' anymore?" Naruto asked. Sasuke usually would have replied 'people with a vocabulary' but just shrugged. "Well, I turn off here. See you later."

Naruto saluted somewhat and walked away smiling. Sasuke watched him leave for a second wondering what he was smiling about or if he was he ran into him. ked him out.

s text book from him 'eaving an


	10. We don't have a garbage disposal

Madara Uchiha was very wealthy. Not only did he have his salary as the dean of a major college, his research brought had brought in a few million dollars over the past ten years. That and he was left a hefty sum from some estranged relative which put him through fourteen years of college, let him buy a large house right out of high school and anything else he wanted. According to Sasuke, Madara sadly had no taste at all.

That was all Sasuke could think about as he walked up the Ritz-ed out neighborhood towards a large gated house. Sasuke wouldn't have even called it a house, it was a mansion. Worse then Madara owning it, the mansion was painted a light salmon pink. Madara said the color was lovely, no one has ever agreed with him.

Sasuke walked up to the main gate, it was closed as normal. He looked at the speaker box for a minute and shrugged. He thought it would be funny if the police came because he scaled the gate. He did climb over the gate only too easily and began making his way up the driveway. Sasuke looked at Itachi's car in the large circle driveway, "He beat me here again…" Sasuke joked to himself.

He walked up to the entrance, opened the door and stepped inside to hear the arguing already. Sasuke sighed heavily and walked down to the dinning room to take his normal seat and waited to be noticed. Itachi and Madara normally fought through the entire meal. Tonight they were on their favorite topic of how Itachi believes Madara is crooked. As usual, he was winning and Madara was stuck using the same old excuse over and over again.

"If people get in the way of Quantity, they must be removed or progress will never be made!" Madara yelled for the umpteenth time since dinner started.

"You know you're only doing this whole movement thing so you'll get famous." Itachi said calmly which set Madara off. He rose from his chair about to say something and Sasuke decided to mediate.

"Both of you sit down and shut up!" Sasuke shouted quickly then resumed his normal quiet manor and looked over at his brother and uncle waiting for something to happen. "Well?"

Madara didn't like being bossed around but sat down obediently and remained quiet outside of "I didn't hear you come in."

"Yea, I'm very sneaky." Sasuke noted and grabbed the glass of the table; it had some wine in it so he set it back down. Sasuke didn't like wine. He stood up and began out, "I'm going to go raid the fridge."

Sasuke left the room unimpeded but followed by silence. Going into the overly large kitchen he opened the fridge to begin rummaging through various foods. He searched for a minute before hearing a noise behind him. Sasuke looked up to see Madara watching him still in his suit. Sasuke stopped and pulled out his phone changing it to pictures. "Here, you should look at these. He works for you right?"

"What?" Madara said and stepped foreword grabbing the phone. He scrolled through the phone and sighed angrily. "Yes, he _used_ to work for me."

Sasuke held out an arm and took his phone back. He quickly just grabbed a soda pop from out of the fridge and closed the door. Sasuke remembered what Itachi said about money and tried to be sympathetic. "Well, that sucks."

"Royally." Madara growled, "Well that just ruins my day for me." Madara stopped, looked up at him and smiled, "follow me."

Sasuke was partially intrigued, partially afraid he'd be forced to sit through another train set play time. Sasuke was pleasantly surprised when Madara took him out to the garage and not to the den where his train set was. Madara opened the garage door and flipped on a light leading him past his car to something covered in a sheet. Madara held a hand out and let Sasuke walk up to it.

The cover slid off easily to reveal a brand new silver Corvette. Sasuke was dumbfounded. He had no idea Madara would do this for him. Madara pulled out some papers from his coat and held them out, "all the papers; license, registration, insurance, all in your name and paid for."

Sasuke turned to him and took the papers. He stopped hating Madara for a bit. "This is really my car?"

"Unless you don't like it…." Madara said as if he could get Sasuke something else. Sasuke shook his head and started proclaiming undying love to Corvettes. It was then that Itachi had finally gotten the nerve to get up and find where they went. Itachi wandered in on his baby brother's ramblings and walked in next to Madara. "I think he likes the car."

"He worships Corvettes. You may have become a god in his eyes." Itachi said laughing. Sasuke took his time actually getting in the car and putting the papers away. The keys were tied with a ribbon to the steering column. Sasuke began to undo them. "Don't drive off just yet, you haven't eaten."

"Plus, there're some conditions." Madara chimed. Sasuke's head turned around and looked at them. "You have to start attending school more, and you have to graduate on time."

Sasuke had high enough grades, he just never showed up. "I can go more often." He said and smiled cheerily.

"Alright, now why don't we get back to dinner?" Madara suggested. Sasuke sighed and got out of his car, he walked away watching it until Itachi grabbed his shoulder and shoved him foreword playfully, "it's not going anywhere."

"I have a car…" Sasuke muttered happily.

"I'm aware." Itachi said and followed him up the stairs into the house. Madara followed them to the hallway where Sasuke branched off of Itachi. "Why can't you ever eat the food prepared?"

"Because I'm stubborn and a problem child and I have to be difficult." He said truthfully and went into the kitchen. Sasuke immediately saw the basket of apples on the counter and shoved a few into his pants pocket; if left alone they would just rot away.

After a few more minutes of scrounging through the kitchen Sasuke had assembled nachos to go along with his soda pop. Performing a balancing act, Sasuke wandered back into the dinning room and set himself up at his seat.

While he was gone for the minutes Itachi and Madara had started back into their argument. Surprisingly both were being civil about the whole discussion. They took turns back and forth after Itachi convinced Madara he's trying to help not hurt the movement.

"All I'm saying is that a little more focus on research and less on publicity and politics would do worlds of wonder. We look like we're showboating something we haven't found yet. It's why Quality is growing steadily and Quantity is leveling off." Itachi said confident in his analysis. Madara actually took a minute to think about it. "Or, you don't have to back off, let out some of the research."

"We can't do that!" Madara snapped quickly losing his temper. He snatched up his glass of wine and took a drink cooling his anger. "All the research is done through extreme methods, until we get proper funding, we can't release anything."

"The funny thing is you won't get any funding until you reveal all of your research." Itachi took a bite off his plate and looked down to Sasuke who seemed quite oblivious. Itachi didn't know his little brother was actually listening intently. Itachi leaned near Madara and whispered. "If you're going to continue the human experimentation has to stop."

"PETA doesn't care about humans though, if we pick up a damn monkey or a dog they'll protest for weeks. Let's have this conversation at tomorrow's meeting." Madara said and Itachi shook his head. "Why not?"

"I have a test later that day I have to study for. Only the top ten scores get into the travel-abroad aspect." Itachi mused and continued to eat.

"Oh, well then, maybe we can talk after your test." Madara said. He looked up at Sasuke who was busy making a design in the bowl of nacho cheese with tortilla chips. "Sasuke, how's your school going?"

"Hm? Oh, it's school, very boring." Sasuke said simply hoping that Madara would get off the topic. His uncle however didn't.

"I received a call today, you skipped out on another one of your classes. Your last block today." Madara said somewhat upset. "Where were you?"

"Round and about, I have no use for home education. I know how to cook and how to sow. It just wastes my time being there." Sasuke professed hoping the lie would last. Sasuke liked home ed, it was the class he had with Suigetsu and Karin. He liked it mainly because they would be able to tag team all their foods into one time slot and finish with half a class to goof off.

"If you want to keep that car, you can't go skipping classes. You have to pass." Madara said and Sasuke pointed a finger at him. "What?"

"You said I just had to show up more and graduate on time. I can still skip according to your own conditions, I just can't do it as often." Sasuke pointed out the loop hole quickly.

"Maybe you should go into law." Itachi muttered. "Deidara likes it."

"Sasori's told me you've been attending his class on Monday mornings." Madara commented. Itachi stopped in the middle of chewing and looked at his little brother. Sasuke had managed to keep his interest in science a secret from Itachi. Since they had come under Madara, Itachi has hated scientists and found them to all be loathsome people. "He says you're good at it."

"I just read from an old book." Sasuke tried to blow it off. Itachi's eyes hadn't left him yet; he could tell the red contacts were focused on him. "I'm nothing special at it."

"To quite the contrary." Madara pleasantly smiled. "According to him, the students think you're his teaching aide. Says that you help them on their work, getting new concepts, and you even taught once when he had to leave on Quantity business. A sixteen year old teaching advanced genetics, that's quite something. You have real potential in that career path."

Itachi was about to get up and leave, Sasuke didn't want to be left alone with Madara. "I want to become a writer. Science is nice, but it gets boring after a while. What's really fun is learning something and making a new threat book. 'A genetic catastrophe never known to man.'" Sasuke said placing the words out with his hands. It had worked, his big brother remained seated.

Madara looked stunned and disappointed at the same time. "A writer? Writers are very poor and have little life to them."

"That's the bohemians, I'll sell out." Sasuke smiled and shoved a huge chip covered with cheese into his mouth. He waited for reactions and simply got blank stares from both of them.

Itachi was the first to move, it was a shrug accompanied by: "if you're happy, you're happy." To that Madara looked even more disappointed and thought of walking out on the two. "You know, there's a lot of money to be made in science. Things like that car out there don't buy themselves."

"Which is why I'm going to sell out." Sasuke pointed out. "If you sell out to say a political leader or a certain organization and write a book aimed at young people pushing their views, you'll get a nice pay check. There's a lot of money to be made in propaganda. It's a pretty safe job too, especially if it's fiction. It's not defamatory if the character isn't real."

"Maybe Itachi's right, you should look into law as well." Madara said staring at him. "I bet you could have made Valedictorian if you had applied yourself throughout high school. You're very smart for someone your age. I'm only worried I'll have to pay for a doctorate for you."

Itachi stood up and stretched, "I'm going to leave, I have things to do, mainly studying." He lied. Itachi was upset at Madara now. He was being down right unfair, but he wasn't upset at Sasuke. He would rather his little brother get everything and him nothing as it was going. However it didn't mean the sting that he was paying for his own college and Sasuke was going to get a free ride would hurt any less.

"Call me after your test so we can arrange to meet, alright?" Madara said simply. Itachi nodded and walked over to Sasuke bending over to hug him. "Behave."

"I know." Sasuke smiled clamping an arm around his brother's.

"We're having a talk sometime." Itachi whispered quietly and let go of him walking away. Sasuke turned kneeling in the chair and watched him go. The door closed loudly, the noised echoed through the quiet house. "He needs a break from college I hope he does well on that test."

"Where's the class going this year?"

"Kenya."

"You won't learn about travel in Kenya. I've been to Kenya, it's far too hot and annoying. Florence, now that would be a place to go, the center of art." Madara said and began to eat again.

"If he doesn't get to go to Kenya," Sasuke said sitting back down and staring at Madara, "can you pay to have him go somewhere. It'd mean a lot to him. I'll give up my allowance for however many months it is to pay for it."

Madara stopped and looked at him. "That's a very self-less act. Not to worry, I can send him and you can keep your allowance. I'm nearly made of money. Speaking of…"

Madara pulled out his wallet which was an old leather one that was far too full. Madara liked to show off a lot. He pulled out some bills and tossed them at Sasuke. Sasuke picked them up and counted them. "This is over a thousand dollars."

"Call it incentive to go to school."

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Itachi was leaving Madara's and getting in his car slightly pissed off at Madara when his phone rang. He answered it quickly and heard two bickering voices. They stopped and Kisame came on, "hey, Suigetsu was wondering if Sasuke made it to Madara's alright."

"Yeah, he's fine, he's being spoiled," Itachi said staring his car. "Madara bought him a brand new Corvette just because."

"I bet that stings. Anyway, I was wondering if you told Sasori yet."

"Told Sasori what?" Itachi asked as he pulled out and onto the street.

"Sasuke didn't tell you? He got… Hey!" Kisame yelled and Suigetsu stole the phone from him, "Sasuke mind fucked Zetsu and got him arrested. Ow!"

In the background Itachi could hear Kisame yelling at him about swearing. "Sorry, but apparently, and this is according to Sasuke, he stalked Zetsu, scared him half to death, and lead him to the college library. Both he and a librarian called it in. Zetsu face is going to be plastered all over the news at ten."

"Wow… Why don't you call and tell him, I'm driving right now." Itachi said focusing on the road, "I'll be home in a few minutes."

"Good, because something's wrong with the garbage disposal."

Itachi sighed and had to laugh it off. "We don't have a garbage disposal."

"Shit." Kisame hung up the phone in a panic. Itachi knew this was going to end badly but didn't have any say in it right now. He simply calmed down and set his phone in the passenger seat.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

To Sasori's unwelcome surprise, Deidara hadn't finished the files yet. Not only had he not finished the files, he hadn't left Sasori's office expect to eat, use the bathroom or to go to class. However it was evident that Sasori was warming up to the new addition, he hadn't yelled at him in two days. Tonight, Sasori was just planning on going to go home, enjoying a salad and reading his murder mystery novel.

Due to unforeseen circumstances Deidara didn't want to go back to the dorms and had asked Sasori for a favor. Reluctantly Sasori agreed to let Deidara stay the night over at his house if he finished translating the files. "That's way easier said then done."

"Well, they have to get finished soon so we know exactly what to take to the cops." Sasori explained as they exited his car to a small one-story on the edge of town. "That and we need to remove ourselves from the files so we are not indicted as well."

"They're going to find out what Madara's been up to, and what we've all been up to. We'll all go to jail." Deidara complained carrying his brief case and his backpack which was stuffed with sixty pounds worth of files. He looked up at the house, "shouldn't you be living in something bigger?"

"Why?" Sasori asked as he unlocked the front door. "It makes life much simpler. I don't think palaces like Madara's are necessary, you just fill them with junk you don't need."

"That's one way of looking at it." Deidara said and followed Sasori in. He looked around the room, it was basically empty besides a couch, a table and a TV. "You're not really a material possessions guy are you?"

"No." Sasori walked in taking off his jacket which he hung on a coat rack. "The first door on the left down the hall is an office. You can use that."

"Okay." Deidara muttered quietly and began down to the room. Sasori heard the door open, close and the phone ring. Sighing, Sasori picked up the phone and answered. "Whoever this is, you have impeccable timing."

"Thanks." Kisame's voice rang out through the phone. "Hey, just wanted to let you know, Zetsu's gone, he was arrested."

"Arrested? How?" Sasori asked not able to understand why, "he was very careful about where he went and what he did. Did he upset Madara or something?"

"No, better. Sasuke forced him into the library and called the cops." Kisame laughed. "According to Sasuke, he also scared the shit out of Zetsu before turning him in."

"Maybe he should be working with us. At least he's getting something done." Sasori pondered. "He's already elected himself to my class on Mondays."

"Is he getting credit for it?"

"He might now… Scaring Zetsu, that's very impressive. Very impressive. Madara likes him; we could use him against Madara."

"You'll have to ask Itachi about that, you know how protective he is of Sasuke." Kisame ended the phone call and hung up. Sasori knew using Sasuke would end up being a good idea, but Itachi would never approve. He would just have to hope Sasuke would keep going and eliminating the right people.

Sasori heard a noise behind him and Deidara walked up to him with a file in hand and pen in mouth. Deidara pulled the pen out and circled a word, "what the Hell is that?"

"Ataxia-telangiectasia. It's a disease that can lead to plenty of problems such as premature aging, it's why Madara's allowed focus on it." Sasori explained picking up the paper and reading through it. "You don't really need to have this translated, all it's saying is that we did research on it two years ago and have continued on the topic steadily."

"That saved me fifteen minutes." Deidara looked at the next file as he began back towards the office.


	11. Cake

"You're here?" Sasuke asked as he looked in the room to see one lone person sitting on the couch in the basement. Sasuke's hand slid his bag off and he watched the other person shrug. To his surprise, Naruto had returned to Black Bird and had made himself perfectly comfortable. More then a little shocked Sasuke walked over to the same couch and sat down facing Naruto from the opposite end. "I figured you'd go running back to Jiraiya's house."

"They only have part of the wall fixed. They're doing the rest tomorrow." Naruto said sitting up from his relaxed position and closed the laptop. "Anyway, they kind of just swarmed me. Every other question was asking me if I was alright, how I was doing. I just wanted some peace and quiet. You don't mind if I stay another night over here?"

Sasuke shook, "nope, you've given me someone to pick on until Karin gets back." Sasuke said shifted feeling his keys in his pocket. "Madara gave me my own car."

"Really? Wow, Jiraiya doesn't make that much yet. He can barely afford his own car." Naruto joked and looked over at him. "So what was with the restaurant?"

Sasuke sighed and looked up at the ceiling. He shrugged, "I just wanted to tell Kisame so he could pass the word along to the right people. I didn't know he'd be there. Did it cause any trouble?"

"My ex-friends started making fun of your friends as soon as they walked in. I won't stand by for that." Naruto said quietly. "I'd rather be upset and just then happy and guilty. The guilt will always catch up."

"You don't need them anymore, Naruto." Sasuke said sitting up. Naruto looked at him awkwardly. "If they're going to act like that, which you obviously dislike, then you don't need them anymore. You have us at Black Bird, even if Suigetsu is scary."

Naruto laughed some, "I know but… I still don't think they're that bad though, Sasuke. I mean, they were really creul…"

"They are, Naruto, they're to me what Karin was like to you yesterday. It's just you think so highly of them you can't see it. Think about it for a minute." Sasuke said and reached in his pants pocket and pulled out an apple and offered it to him. Naruto looked at it, took a bite and actually thought about it.

Calmly, Sasuke just watched him waiting for something to happen he could work off of. Naruto stopped and suddenly blurted out, "you're right, I even told them to stop and they began to pick back at me. I can't believe they'd do that."

"It happens, don't beat yourself, them or anyone else up for it. It happens, but we move on and say nasty things about them inside our heads." Sasuke said with a bit of fun to his voice. Naruto just took another bite of the apple and remained silent. "So, do you always look this distraught and helpless?"

"With the way things are going…" Naruto said quietly and drifted off somewhere in his head. Sasuke observed for a second and rethought his current given strategy to something that would possibly upset everyone a lot. He was about to say something then Naruto turned to him and smiled goofily. "Now that I think about it, I don't know why I hang out with them. They judge every little thing about everyone.

"You guys haven't at all, no one's picked on me here, and you guys never say anything bad about anyone. So why are you guys portrayed as the bad guys?" Naruto asked seriously.

Sasuke hadn't thought about that but actually stopped and considered that. "Maybe it's the bondage pants." Naruto let out a funny little noise at that. "Karin says the bondage pants make you hotter too, though I'm the only one who really wears them at school besides Suigetsu and neither of us have dates, so it doesn't say a lot for us, but it really doesn't say a lot for her theory."

"What theory?" Karin said opening the door to walk in with a bag of half eaten popcorn. Sasuke grabbed the loose material on his pants and shook it. "Right, they do make you hotter. They do, it's just all the girls are stuck up." She stopped and turned to Naruto, "you're still here?"

"I hate most of my friends." Naruto said plainly and somewhat depressed.

Karin smiling walked over and sat between them putting her arms around both of them. "Now you belong here. I remember when some girl tried to get me to change to all these pastels that make me look anemic, I never forgave her. Then she had the nerves to make fun of me, calling me a whore, I shook my head, said 'thank god I don't look like I'm sixty' and walked away."

"She's still very proud of herself." Sasuke said and looked over the red head to see Naruto's happiness wasn't improving. "Why don't we go get cake?"

"It's dark and we don't have…" She stopped as Sasuke pulled out a key chain. "Is it the Corvette you've been asking for?"

"Brand new. Come on Naruto, we're going to get cake." Sasuke said getting up with Karin following his lead.

"I don't really feel like it." Naruto said and Sasuke walked over and sat in front of him on the table. "I rather feel like just passing out."

"You _need_ cake. Trust us, Karin and I know what we're talking about. Anyway, we need to go to that dinner to avoid suspicion." Sasuke reminded Karin, she mouthed 'oh yeah' and began over to the door. "Just come out for cake. It's not like we're going to poison you or anything."

"The cake there is really good." Karin said trying to help. "And they have like five different types."

Sasuke held out a hand and waited for a response out of the blond. Naruto sighed, looked up and grabbed Sasuke's hand to be pulled up with him.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Naruto was surprised to find himself in good company. The ride was filled with weird jokes picking on each other and a phone call saying Jugo was going to meet them at the diner. As they arrived Sasuke stopped the car and looked over at the alley next to the diner, there was police tape up. "Looks like they took care of the chef like they said."

"It seems so." Karin said from in between the two guys. Sasuke was the first to get out and was followed by Naruto and Karin. They didn't go into the restaurant but over to the alleyway. There was a dull humming coming from a lamp post behind the tape, there in the glow was a white outline and several blood splatter marks.

"What happened?" Naruto asked quietly.

"He was the chef in the diner, he called us in as runaways. Itachi moved us before the police came, then he and Kisame took care of the threat he posed to us. Don't think on it too much." Sasuke said and put his arm around Naruto's shoulder leading him away. "For now, just think about cake."

Sasuke led Naruto inside, Karin lingered on the scene for a minute before turning towards the diner doors to see Jugo coming. "Perfect timing, we just got here."

"I could use some cake…" Jugo said calmly and opened the door to let her in first. He himself then disappeared inside and the four found seats by the window.

Outside a bubbly blonde was walking home from her job at the flower shop, saw the scene and stopped to witness it to the end. Ino's hand dropped to her bag and she immediately picked up the phone and dialed a number. "Sakura? Do you know where Naruto is right now? I do, he's in a diner with the freak kids. I am not lying, I can take a picture right now. Okay, just a second."

Ino held out the phone at the window where Naruto sat across from Sasuke quite visibly and took a photo. She pressed a few buttons and lifted her phone up, "Did you get it?.... I don't know what's up with him! You're closer to him! You figure it out!" Ino hung up her phone and was quickly gone down the street.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

The dessert menu was a small piece of pink paper that was laminated. It was set in the middle of the table and the four basically argued over what was best until the waitress showed up. "Do you four need more time?"

"Yes, please." Jugo said politely and the waitress went off to another table. "What are we getting; they usually get upset if you sit too long."

"I do want something chocolate, but I want the rainbow cake too." Karin said and turned to Sasuke who was next to her. He just stared at the menu. Naruto snatched it quickly, added the prices in his head and set it back down. "It's twenty bucks for all of them, let's just get all of them and share them?"

"I like that idea, simple, cost effective." Sasuke said and pulled out his wallet, Madara had given him a thousand dollars earlier in the evening; he wasn't going to share the amount yet. Sasuke smiled sweetly and looked up. "I'll pay, thanks to Uncle Madara."

"You sound like you're not upset with him for once, Sasuke." Jugo said noticing his behavior at the mentioning of Madara Uchiha. Sasuke lifted a slim finger and pointed out window to his car and Jugo nodded understanding. A few seconds later the waitress came back and Jugo told her their weird order. "Yes, could we get one of each off of the desert menu?"

"One for the table or for each of you?" She asked picking up her pencil.

"One for the table." Jugo responded and the waitress nodded and walked away. "Is this that diner with the chef?"

"It was," Karin said quickly and grabbed in her pocket to pull out a small thick of paper. She pulled her pencil from her hair and began writing something on the sheet. She finished, folded it and passed the paper and the pencil to Sasuke. Sasuke casually opened the paper, read the note and turned to Karin with a blank face. "Seriously?"

"What? It's a major concern of mine right now. I mean, look at where we are right now. This is highly unusual." She said grabbing the paper and pencil back.

"I'll think over it tonight." Sasuke said softly as he heard the click of the waitress's heels go by.

"Am I allowed in on the conversation?" Naruto asked looking at the two.

"Nope, so we'll get off Black Bird issues, got it?" Sasuke said cranking his head at Karin. She nodded and looked at the people down a few tables. Sasuke ignored her and turned back to Naruto, waiting for the blond to speak again. Naruto kept quiet in a small pool of thoughts, mainly, 'is Sasuke going to let me borrow another shirt tomorrow' and 'is Jiraiya alright?'

"Hey can I borrow your phone, Jiraiya hasn't seen me all day." Naruto asked of Sasuke. Sasuke didn't answer but quickly held out the iPhone to him. Naruto didn't bother to leave the Black Birds to make the call, it was mainly because Jiraiya wouldn't answer tonight, he'd be teaching. It rang twice and Jiraiya's voice popped on asking for a message. "Hey, I'm alive, I'll check in tomorrow, bye."

"That has to be the shortest call ever." Karin said as Naruto handed the phone back.

"He doesn't check his phone until late, he's teaching right now." Naruto muttered as the waitress stopped at their table with two arms full. She had to set down both trays and Jugo helped her clear them, the table was covered in desserts.

The waitress quickly left them and Jugo looked in the table, "does she not like us?"

"Even though they're look down on themselves, they look down on us. Just ignore it Jugo." Sasuke said and grabbed a piece of cake and took a bite of it. He face turned for a second and he passed it to Karin. "That is way too sweet."

"My specialty." She said and took a bite of it as well to find she liked it. For the next forty minutes or so, the four sat eating and joking as they saw fit. Karin ate mostly brownies and the occasional cake like Jugo. Sasuke lay claim to everything else and after he took a bite of something he liked, he immediately passed the dish onto Naruto. A few times Naruto tried to say no to the dish and found himself at the threat of being force fed.

The meal ended and Jugo flagged down the waitress for their check. Karin and Sasuke were already standing up, Naruto would have, but Jugo was still sitting until the waitress handed him the check. Sasuke took the check, pushed pass Karin and paid so they could leave and get home, all the food which they ate was making them sleepy.

"We've all just gained ten pounds." Karin said grabbing her stomach. She sighed and looked at Sasuke's car and realized a problem Jugo had made more pronounced. The Corvette was a two seater car, she had already ridden in the center, but Jugo couldn't fit anywhere but a seat and that would make a problem. "So who's walking?"

She turned around and faced the guys as they filed out and noticed the same problem. Sasuke looked at the car, looked up at Karin and Jugo then to Naruto. Grabbing his keys the young Uchiha tossed them at Jugo. "You take Karin home, we can walk."

Sasuke looked to Naruto to see if this was okay, the blond nodded and smiled. Sasuke turned back to them and watched as they got in his new car which he hadn't had for more then two hours and take off. He and Naruto began walking towards the nearest street intersection. "So what do you think of Black Bird?"

"It's a house," Naruto shrugged as he put his hands in his pockets. "I think it's cool that you fixed it up yourselves, but besides that, there's nothing really special about it." Naruto kept walking and heard the silence that was emanating from Sasuke. "Why?"

"We're trying to things to fix up about it." Sasuke lied to the both of them. He was trying to keep his mind off what Karin had written, but it kept pushing itself back to the front of his mind and taking over. "Karin's not that scary anymore is she?"

"No, I thought she was going to kill me last night, though." Naruto said then realized what he had brought up. His mind stared going through how to avoid that conversation, Sasuke did it for him.

"Suigetsu's the same way, he just never looks like he's going to kill you, you just have to expect he will unless he likes you." Sasuke turned to him to see Naruto was distracted in thought, Sasuke however was keen enough to notice the stairs going down Naruto was going to look over. Sasuke grabbed his arm and yanked him hard towards him and then laughed at him, causing Naruto to look where he was going. "You need to be more careful."

"Obviously…" Naruto said and began walking more with somewhat of a purpose ripping from Sasuke.

Sasuke actually had to move to keep up with him. "You okay?" Naruto shrugged. "Bad cake?"

Naruto smiled and laughed a bit. "Nawh, I'm just thinking about something. Having to rethink everything, after the way they acted today, and for the past few years. They've been acting like the people I've been trying to fight. It's a lot to go over."

"Whatever it is, don't let it stress you too much." Sasuke placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder and shook it reaffirming his support. "Even if you don't go back to any of them, you have Black Bird now." 'There's no avoiding it now…' Sasuke contemplated in his head. The rest of the walk was spent in thought; every now and then one would break out of the thought bubble and make sure they were headed the right way towards Black Bird.

As they approached the house, Sasuke wasn't surprised to see that Jugo and Karin hadn't gone in. What did surprise him is that it was because Suigetsu was there with Kisame, and Kisame's tank of a car was parked behind the Corvette, and behind that was Itachi's driven-off-the-grand-canyon car. Sasuke jogged over with Naruto in tow to see the scene. Kisame turned to see Sasuke and laughed, "Your brother's inside, all the pipes in the house burst."

"I told you the sink didn't have a trash disposal…" Itachi fumed coming out with a towel and rubbing his hair off. "Now the house is flooded… Luckily I keep my books in Madara's office. Damn it…" Itachi said and leaned against Kisame's car glaring down at the sidewalk.

"So, I take it we're having a full house tonight?" Sasuke asked and everyone nodded. "Well, everybody in then, I don't want the cops coming by."

"They'd stop us instead of all the prostitutes?" Naruto asked.

"The street walkers are a normal sight, we aren't." Karin explained. Slowly the group moved into the house leaving Sasuke and Naruto in the back. They soon moved to the front when everyone stopped in the den or kitchen and they went up stairs.

Sasuke stopped by the top of the stairs, "I'll see you later. If you need something, don't ask Suigetsu or Kisame." Sasuke said and headed up the stairs to hear the blond say exhaustedly "good night."

Sasuke smiled in his thoughts and headed up to Karin's room, he wanted to think in the shower. He was at her door when Karin and Suigetsu caught up to him and looked at him. Suigetsu crossed his arms and smiled, "so you had bonding time with him? Are you going to mentally fondle him or are we going to add him."

"I'm thinking about it." Sasuke said, about which one he wouldn't say. Opening the door to Karin's room which smelled strongly of perfume he walked in with Karin and they stopped halfway through and turned to Suigetsu, "you're allowed in for this one time."

"Only because it's a meeting. If I ever catch you in here again I'll do something unspeakable." Karin said.

"Like what?" Suigetsu asked walking right up to her and looking down at her.

"It's unspeakable, idiot." She said pushing him back a few inches and sitting down on her bed. Sasuke mostly closed the bathroom door; Suigetsu sat down next to the door and waited for Sasuke to say something while he glared at Karin picking at her nails.


	12. Meeting

Sasuke was given a few minutes of silence in the bath tub. A bathroom was a bad place to hold a meeting from, but Sasuke needed to be in cold water right now. Karin had already figured this fact out: he mainly baths so much to resolve this fact. Suigetsu however just thought Sasuke was becoming a Kappa like he was. It was a lot simpler than observing his friend having problems with his libido.

Sasuke lay there immersed in the frozen water trying to rid his mind of the dirty thought about the blond so he could actually hold the meeting without any pull towards one side. He knew it was going to be a hard decision for him, but an even tougher one for Suigetsu to get. How was Sasuke supposed to come out and say "he's like us plus I think he's cute" to a friend who wouldn't accept that as a viable reason?

For a great surprise, Karin wanted him in the Black Birds, it didn't make any sense without having a dirty thought. However it was Karin and he knew she was into those types of things. Sasuke sat up, sighed heavily and pushed himself out of the tub.

The sounds of Sasuke's movements were heard through the slightly open door, however they were ignored by a conversation that Karin and Suigetsu were holding. The main question posed from Suigetsu was "Why are you getting dolled up, Karin?"

"I'm going out tonight, I'm out of money. I figure I get one good guy who can pay well and I'm set for the week." Karin said emotionlessly to the mirror where she fixed her lipstick. Suigetsu stood up and walked over to her. Suigetsu shook his head and looked at her. "What?

"You're sixteen, what are you doing on the streets? You can get a job; you don't need to go out there." Suigetsu said quietly knowing Sasuke would be out in a minute. "Talk to Kisame, or Hell talk to Madara, they can get you a part time down at the college doing something where you're not in danger."

"Maybe I like the street, maybe I like doing that? Anyway, it's not like I'm getting money to stay in here and study." Karin said and finished her make-up. Suigetsu was quick on pulling his wallet out. The bleach blond opened it and began going through the money Kisame had just given him. "What are you doing?"

Suigetsu didn't reply right away, instead he counted out all his bills and came up with a little over one hundred dollars. Suigetsu just pulled all of it out and shoved it at her. "I'm buying you out for the night, stay in."

At that moment Sasuke had his pants back on and had opened the door. Unsure of what to make of the scene he stood quietly and watched. Karin pushed the money back at him. "That's all your money; you won't be able to eat."

"You want to be such a little whore, take the money." Suigetsu said stepping forward and shoving it in her hand. Karin tried to push it back but found that Suigetsu was a lot stronger then her. By the time she could react to anything Suigetsu had a hand around her neck pinning her to a wall. "Do you know how many prostitutes die out there every year? There was one killed just last week and you want to go out on the street! Take the money and stay in tonight!"

"Suigetsu! Enough!" Sasuke said finally interrupting. Suigetsu pulled his arm off and went around the room to sulk by the door. Sasuke then turned his attention to Karin. She stood up against the wall rubbing her neck. "Suigetsu's money is as good as any of those deadbeats out there. He's paying you to do something good for your health, take it and stay in."

"Right…" Was all she muttered and looked down at the fist full of cash. Sasuke pulled the chair out from Karin's desk and sat down glaring at the two. Sasuke was about to do something when Karin excused herself to the bathroom and closed the door loudly behind her. Turning to Suigetsu, Sasuke rolled his eyes. "It was a little violent."

"I thought it was necessary." Suigetsu pulled out a knife and began twirling the open blade against a finger tip. "Maybe we should talk to Jugo about her, she shouldn't be going out there. She's just a kid."

"You sound like you've grown up, what the Hell happened?" Sasuke asked him in a friendly manner. "You've been trying to run her out of the house for three years and now you're making her stay in it."

Suigetsu shrugged and put the knife away. "Priorities change, I still want her out of the house but not if she's going to be doing that. Not when there are people like me out there." He said and waited for a second to look at the expression on Sasuke's face. He could read it easily and threw his empty wallet at him. "Before you say anything, shut up Sasuke. And that's pre-emptive, for everything on that subject. Just think of something else whenever it floats into your mind."

"Fine, but this is a shitty cash bribe." Sasuke said opening the wallet to display how empty it was. He tossed it back and they heard the door open. Karin didn't come out but the door was open. "You going to stay in there?"

"Yes." Came meekly from the opening and Sasuke decided not to press the issue.

"So, Karin wants to make Naruto a full Black Bird, is there any discussion on this?" Sasuke asked very formally.

"Where's Jugo, Itachi and Kisame?" Suigetsu asked them. "Half of the people is still only half, I think we at least need one more person."

"It's fine, Jugo's in favor. He likes Naruto, said he was very peaceful." Karin said then muttered something else that was in audible. Sasuke turned to Suigetsu to see his thoughts on the matter. Suigetsu just stared back until Karin interrupted them. "He just lost all of his friends."

"Just dumped…" Suigetsu corrected.

"His house was set on fire." Karin yelled back at him.

"Because he has a big mouth." Suigetsu was excellent at being the negative in any situation. He could argue that oxygen was poisonous, and the sad part is, he would find a way to win. It was part of Suigetsu character he had adapted from Sasuke. Sasuke could probably argue better then he could, but he was reserving himself until the end if needed.

"If he hadn't been in that stupid movement, his house would be fine, he would be happy with his recently dumped friends. He's been all emo, no offense Sasuke." Suigetsu said trying to wave it off, "not that your super emo, but you are mostly emo."

"Yea, point taken." He said and scratched his head wishing he had shampooed. He waited for anything to be said but took it that it was his turn. "Naruto's friends spoke badly of us, and when he tried to interfere, they made fun of him. I believe it's not his fault he's doing the right thing, but everyone else's that they're doing the wrong thing."

"Nicely spoken." Karin said loudly.

"Thanks. Now, I am for Naruto becoming a Black Bird. We all came here by need and coincidence, he was no difference. We all argued when we came here, and we did it when he came. I'm just saying he's a Black Bird, official or not." Sasuke ended his speech with a little gesture that bugged everyone. It was that common sense gesture where you shrug a little and do something with your facial expression. Even though Suigetsu was the only one who could see it, Sasuke noticed the intended effect from Suigetsu expression.

"I'm in favor along with Jugo. We win." Karin said, "Itachi doesn't care and neither would Kisame."

"Neither do I… I vote we don't tell him you get tattooed!" Suigetsu yelled happily and sat up straight with his hand raised.

"That's evil, I like it. We'll do it…" Sasuke looked at the time. "How's three AM, I'll go 'round and get everybody?"

"Don't wake me up for that, just tell me about it in the morning." Karin blew her nose. "Hey Sasuke, since you have a car now, are you going to run and get us all Burger King in the morning?"

"No, I have to save my money for gas now." Sasuke was actually happy about that. He got up and leaned against the door frame. "I'm going downstairs; do you need anything brought up?"

"No, I'm good." Sasuke nodded and began out looking at Suigetsu. Suigetsu didn't move expect to put a finger to his mouth without his normal devious smile. Sasuke just shrugged and left closing the door behind him. Suigetsu waited a moment or two before getting up silently and sitting down next to the bathroom door. "You're really bad at hiding when you're crying."

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?" Karin fumed and was about to slam the door closed but Suigetsu grabbed it. "Close the door."

"I'm not going to come in there, I just want to know why you want to go to the streets. Sure there's a thrill to it, but that doesn't mean I go around killing everything in sight." Suigetsu argued from personal experience. He turned to face the door. "I just don't get why you'd want to do something so dangerous."

"It's money and it's fun…" She tried to argue.

"Fun? No, fun is fooling around with someone you know, not a complete stranger in their car without any control. Do you get what I'm trying to say?" Suigetsu asked and saw as his money was thrown out the door. He grabbed it and went against his word entering the bathroom to find her in her nightgown. He stopped, "You're not going out?"

Karin shook her head, she had began to wipe off the makeup but some of it had ran before she could get to it. Suigetsu held out the money to her again. "If you need it, take it. I have a home I can go to, when the plumbing is fixed, where everything's given to me. You don't have that option. This is your only home."

Karin didn't mean to but she started crying again. Suigetsu set the money down on the edge of the sink and wrapped an arm around her head. "If you want, I'll go beat someone up and you can watch." Karin did laugh a bit and shook her head knowing it was a serious offer.

---------( ---------- )---------

Sasuke navigated down to the second floor landing and looked down the hall. His brother's door was open, Itachi was in there. His head shifted across the hall, Naruto's door was closed, there was no light coming from under the doorway. He was asleep as he said he was going to do. Sasuke sighed and continued down the flight to the kitchen, deserted. He wandered more and down the stairs to the basement and found Jugo sitting with Kisame arm wrestling.

Being both men were absolutely huge, in muscles and size, and they commonly liked to contest each other. In their bout right now they were evenly matched. Sasuke hung back on the bottom of the stairs waiting for something to happen in the match for it too end. Sasuke's nerves were driving him up the wall, he wanted a cigarette. He saw it then, on a couch, his sweater with everything in it.

Sasuke ditched his first intent of watching; he was going to watch and smoke. He got down quickly and grabbed his sweater and dumped the pouch contents onto the couch. Relived he grabbed the box of cigarettes and the light. Sasuke wandered next to the door and opened it slightly so he could light his cigarette.

The first inhale for him was like a relief. "You know…" Came a strained voice from Kisame, "you're brother really hates the idea of you smoking."

"I could find something worse to do." Sasuke offered and took another long drag. "Anyway, this is my first since…" He stopped and began recalling everything. "Yesterday."

"Oh you poor baby…" Kisame teased him. Jugo saw an opening and took it slamming Kisame's hand down with a quick flash of anger. "Damn it."

"So…" Jugo said finally talking. He released Kisame's hand and looked passed the moved couch to where Sasuke lingered. "What was decided in the meeting?"

"Naruto's becoming a Black Bird." Sasuke said and put the cigarette back in his mouth for a quick second. "We all said we wanted him here, however, the tattooing he'll find out about right before it happens."

"That Suigetsu's Idea?" Sasuke nodded and kept huffing away at the cigarette. Jugo got up and walked over to his large steel brief case. He opened it up and checked the equipment he had inside. "I have enough ink for it. Hopefully he won't hate you for it."

"I don't think he will." Sasuke said and heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Suigetsu jumped down the last few steps and landed on the couch next to Kisame. "Women are so emotional…"

"It's why I avoid them." Kisame said put his feet up on the table. "My mother was so horrible with her mood swings…"

"You lived with your parents growing up?"

"No, she killed my father and went to penn. But I swear to god, they all need to be on something." Kisame laughed and pulled out his Blackberry to check his email. "Oh, e-mail from Madara." Kisame opened it and began reading through, "Shit, I'm supposed to meet the plumber then."

"Hey, there's a meeting…" Itachi said coming downstairs nearly silently holding up his phone. "Isn't that when the plumber's coming?"

"Yeah, that's why I reiterate: shit." Kisame huffed and moved on to the next message.

"I'll be there then, I'm excused from the meeting."

"Does your excusal come with a permission slip?" Kisame asked and went through other things, "Sasori thinks Deidara's cracking under pressure. He could be a liability."

"I've known Deidara for a while, he probably just needs space. He has to fit his ego into a room with him, after all. Tell Sasori just to buy him some fireworks, or better yet let him blow something up." Kisame laughed slightly and began messaging back. Itachi walked over next to Sasuke and looked at him, "So, what's up?"

"We're making Naruto a Black Bird, however on Suigetsu's request…" Sasuke was yelled over.

"We're going to kidnap him at 3 and not tell him shit until the needle hits his skin!" Suigetsu said happily. Suigetsu was quickly frapped on the head and told not to swear until he's eighteen. This instigated a shouting match between Kisame and his ward. No one stayed around to hear it; the argument always ended the same. Jugo headed up stairs to the side room to disappear to where he usually goes.

Sasuke and Itachi however headed up into the side house and out the back door so his smoke would disperse quicker. "It's really not healthy for you, Sasuke."

Sasuke just shrugged and looked up at the calming black sky. There were plenty of stars dotting the sky, a welcome sight when on the other side of the building the street lamps blocked them out. Sasuke just stared up into them and calmly pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and dropped it to the ground. "Happy?"

"No, because you'll pick one up later." Itachi said and wrapped an arm around his neck. Sasuke rolled his eyes expecting the big 'smoking is bad' speech. "Cigarettes are expensive, you should get a cheaper hobby."

"Cheaper hobby? Madara's paying for these," Sasuke laughed sarcastically. 'Like the money would actually run out.' "Anyway, what would I do in the times I'm not smoking?"

Itachi just shrugged. "I don't know, get a boyfriend, just become addicted to something else. Maybe if you became addicted to sowing, you could repair all those pants I've torn out."

"Why don't you just learn how to sow?"

"Because I don't have an addiction to forget about." Itachi said as his final words and released his brother into the world. Sasuke looked down at the still burning cigarette and was about to reach down and pick it up. He stopped short of it and stood back up without the stick. His big brother had given him some guilt that was working to bother him. Sasuke gave up the idea of smoking for the night and went back inside.

As he walked by Itachi was intervening in Suigetsu and Kisame's fight. He continued on ignoring the yelling and went upstairs to the second floor and walked to his door. For the sake of thought Sasuke turned to Naruto's door, there was a light coming from underneath the door way.

It was instinct and want that moved his legs down the hall. Sasuke didn't have a thing to say to Naruto, not a single thing that he could say anyway. Sasuke's hand hit Naruto's door a few times and the voice called from the other side. Sasuke opened the door and walked in to find Naruto gazing intently at his laptop screen. It was the story he had helped write. "You're not worrying about the story are you?"

"Worried, no. Somewhat… I, it doesn't feel right." Naruto said and turned the screen towards Sasuke and circle a paragraph with his finger. "It just doesn't seem right."

Sasuke walked over next to the bed, knelt down and began reviewing the material. Sasuke found it instantly. "You don't need this sentence; it's adding to content but taking away from the story."

Without permission Sasuke quickly deleted it and turned the computer back at Naruto. Naruto read through the story and was amazed, "it was that. How'd you do that, I've been staring at this thing for ten minutes."

"I told you already, I am a Sith Lord." Sasuke said with pride, "The cookies however are in my room."

They both laughed a bit until Naruto asked him: "So, what is it?"

Sasuke shrugged, "just saw your light on and needed a distraction from smoking. Everyone's trying to get me to quit. Figured everyone in the world can't be wrong. I'm not keeping you awake, am I?"

Naruto shook his head and closed up the laptop setting it down on its case. "I can't sleep anyway, too many things going on up there. I'm considering picking up smoking."

"Don't. I'll beat you stupid if you do. It's a waste of money and I'm just going to keep telling myself that until I agree." Sasuke said stiffly and somewhat talking to himself. "What's fun is getting a tattoo… If I can beg Jugo enough I'll be getting a sleeve on this arm."

Sasuke showed off the arm with the giant eagle on top. Naruto looked at it, "didn't it hurt?" Sasuke shrugged, he had been half asleep for most of it. Naruto fell back onto his bed and sighed.

"If you focus on one thing, you should be able to clear your mind pretty well." Sasuke said standing up, "you should get some sleep."

"Probably..." Naruto muttered. For the second time that night they said goodnight to one another and Sasuke left Naruto's room's turning off the light. Sasuke closed the door quietly and walked down to his room pulling out his iPhone and setting the alarm for 2:55 AM.


	13. Becoming Black Bird

The iPhone sounded at 2:55 AM, just like it was supposed to. The buzzing was obnoxious for Sasuke who had to wake up, lift his head off his pillow and touch the screen. The alarm wasn't that loud so neither Naruto nor Suigetsu was woken. Sasuke's first thing he did was to make sure he still had boxers on. He patted and re-arranged the fabric, they were still on. Stretching Sasuke opened his door quietly and began heading upstairs.

Bypassing Karin's painted door he walked down to Jugo's room. He knocked carefully on the door and waited for a minute to see Jugo was fully alert and dressed. Sasuke was a bit upset by the fact that he was completely unready, "how can you do that… Just how can you be awake at three AM?"

"I haven't gone to sleep yet, I got a new puzzle book." Jugo said as though if you had a puzzle book it was a good reason to stay up all night. It probably was for him seeing as all he did was work and do crossword puzzles. "Everything's already set up in the basement."

"Cool, I'll go get Suigetsu up and we'll bring him down." Sasuke yawned and began down the stairs slowly. Jugo had to follow him down, Sasuke was obviously a slow moving object in his path. Getting off on the second floor Jugo quickly rushed the rest of the way down leaving Sasuke wandering.

Sasuke didn't even knock on Suigetsu door, he wouldn't wake to that no matter what you tried. Opening the door he turned on the light to see the ripped up room with knives stuck everywhere in the walls. Suigetsu refused a bed for some odd reason and slept on the floor covered in a thicket of blankets. Sasuke kicked the mass on the floor. "It's show time, get up."

"No, go away." Suigetsu said and rolled over not understanding what was going on. Waking Suigetsu up was always a hassle, if a normal person attempted he or she would fail and possibly get stabbed. The rest of the Black Birds knew exactly how to get him up.

"He's likely to scream in pain." Sasuke said louder. Suigetsu woke up to that and remembered what they were supposed to be doing. The kappa stood up in the same attire as Sasuke and stretched. "Let's go wake him up."

"I have a blow horn." Suigetsu said suddenly. Sasuke looked at him why the pale child dug through a pile on the floor to pull it out. For a few seconds Suigetsu showed it off by easily flipping it in his hand. Smiling, he tilted his head like a crooked salesman and promised "It'll wake the dead."

"Including Kisame." Sasuke reminded him and Suigetsu quickly dropped that idea and the can on the floor. "Why don't we just do the classic rush in?"

"I do like the rush in." Suigetsu said and they stopped out in front of Naruto's door with only the light from Suigetsu's room. Sasuke counted down from three on his fingers and Suigetsu rushed in flipping the light on. "AH! Fire!"

Naruto jumped up with a screech and Suigetsu fell on his ass laughing at Naruto. Sasuke stepped in and looked at the scene, "that wasn't the classic rush in, but it was a rush in." Sasuke said and turned to Naruto, "it's time to get up."

"What's going on?" Naruto said quite surprised and looked at them. Sasuke kicked Suigetsu again to get him to stop laughing. Naruto watched as they communicated with head nudges and slowly stalked towards him. "Hey, what's with the…"

"Stop yer bitching." Suigetsu said and grabbed one of Naruto's arms and began dragging him from the bed. Unlike them he was fully dressed as well. Sasuke shrugged and just grabbed Naruto's other arm to have Suigetsu haze him, "I didn't bitch this much when I was woken up. Nope, I was kicked, offered slight incentive and was on my feet."

"He's very proud of himself as you can see." Sasuke said and the three made an uncoordinated effort to get down the stairs. It worked well enough, they didn't fall or trip once. "Usually it takes the incentive of 'hey that guy's going to get his head ripped off.' He likes the idea that you might scream though."

"Scream?" Naruto asked somewhat terrified of what was going to happen. When they came to the basement stairs Suigetsu went down first and Sasuke practically shoved Naruto down. "What are you guys doing?"

Suigetsu smiled, held up a peace sign and simply said, "We've chosen to assimilate you. As a new member of the Borg Collective we will remove most human cognition, all hair and…"

Jugo interfered this time and slapped Suigetsu playfully upside the head. Jugo sat down on the table and started pulling out his equipment. He looked up and smiled as well. "What Suigetsu was trying to say is that we accept you. After what you've been through, we think you're one of us."

Naruto turned around and looked at Sasuke, the Uchiha slid foreword and held out his wrist with the small Black Bird on it. "We want you to become a Black Bird, stay with us, here. If you do, we'll be your family. You'll never have to think about who's a friend again, because you'll see them everyday. " Sasuke held out his first tattoo to him and gazed down at it with the greatest warmth. "However there's one tiny condition that all the Black Birds must get."

"Condition," Naruto took a second to connect why the tattoo was being shown. "I can't get a tattoo, Jiraiya will kill me."

"Coach said the same thing so I got mine on my hip… I can't wait until senior year…" Suigetsu fumed angrily. He stopped and threw himself down on his couch. "Stop being such a baby, it doesn't hurt that bad when you get it small and on an insensitive place."

"Jugo's really gentle with a needle, it won't hurt that bad. It's not like it's going to be the size of my eagle." Sasuke compared his tattoos and then moved to make Naruto sit down on the edge of the table and kept his black bird tattoo visible. "It can be smaller than this. All we ask is a little bit of your skin, you can put it wherever you want."

Sasuke was good at being convincing, he often thought he should be a lawyer but then heard horror stories from Deidara. Sasuke sat down on the couch directly next to Naruto and just waited for a reaction.

Naruto deliberated for a minute considering everything inside his head and looked at Sasuke, "do I have to get a bird?" Sasuke nodded. "Wherever I want?"

"Well, I wouldn't recommend the feet or the happy place," Jugo said, "mainly because I won't tattoo there. But yeah, wherever."

Naruto cheered up some and actually looked at him, "so like, I could get it on my back."

"Don't steal me dream from me!" Suigetsu yelled and rolled over the couch upset.

Sasuke laughed slightly and explained his companion's anguish, "Suigetsu wants to be the first with a full back tattoo, and he can't however because of swimming."

"I don't want a full back, I just want it on my back, like right here." Naruto said touching his lower back. "I always wanted a tattoo there whatever it was."

"It'll hurt right there. That's right over the bone; I can make it quick though." Jugo said observing the spot that was directly over the vertebral column. Jugo pulled out a pair of latex gloves and snapped them on his hands. Naruto jumped up and looked at him; Sasuke just grabbed him and sat him back down. "If you need to, Suigetsu will be more the happy to knock you out."

"Um, no, it's just… Ah screw it." Naruto said and sat back down. He peeled off his shirt and tossed it down next to him. "I'll just sit out gym class."

"That's the spirit." Sasuke said encouragingly and slid foreword. "Have you ever been stabbed with a molten pitchfork before?" Naruto shook his head, "it has the possibility to feel like that."

"Oh great." Naruto muttered and turned his head to see Jugo putting a needle on something he couldn't identify. Jugo looked somewhat frustrated because the blond was fidgeting so much.

"Do you need to hang on to something?" Sasuke asked. Jugo stopped right before he was about to turn on the machine and looked at Sasuke. "I'll keep him still." Sasuke scooted foreword on the couch and wrapped his arms around Naruto keeping him in place. Sasuke's head went over Naruto's shoulder so he could keep a close observation on the tattooing. "Hold still."

Naruto was a little startled but understood what he was asking. He took a deep breath and nodded, "okay."

The noise started, Sasuke and Jugo nodded at each other as the needle touched Naruto's skin. Naruto didn't move for a while as Jugo traced a small outline and stopped to check it for the shape he likes. Jugo changed the needle to his shading one and began in again. Naruto didn't move until Jugo was right over the bone.

It was very painful to Naruto; he had never been injured on the spine before so it was an entirely new type of pain. With very little experience on how to deal with it, Naruto clenched. Sasuke noticed and began to constrict his arms. There was little he could do outside of that and whispering "You're almost done."

The needle continued along his skin nearly finishing the portion over the spine when Naruto let out a little noise. It was a gasp of pain followed by a little groan. It was a noise Sasuke had wanted to hear for a while, but not right now and not in this situation. Sasuke was the one in a panic now, he was too close to Naruto with that noise playing in his head. Sasuke tried to pass it off as nothing, Jugo was oblivious and Suigetsu had fallen back asleep already. Naruto felt it already; their chests were touching and he could feel the irregularity.

In the most awkward of ways it was almost as if their minds synced for a minute. Like some sort of plan, Naruto laid his head on Sasuke's shoulder pushing through the tattoo. Sasuke was elated and unsure when Naruto's arms met his back. His only reaction was to smile and remain in the position, coddling Naruto in his arms.

If anyone else beside Jugo saw the scene, there would be Hell to come. Jugo however was quite right when he said he didn't care; ignoring most of it the tattoo was finished smoothly. Naruto felt the sting leave as Jugo wiped the bleeding ink away with a wet cloth and tape some paper towel over it.

"Sasuke can tell you how to take care of the tattoo." Jugo said pulling off his gloves and tossing them in the garbage. He packed up and shoved the kit under the couch. Jugo turned to them, "I'd move before Suigetsu wakes up."

"Come on Naruto, we should get you back to bed." Sasuke said softly in his ear. Naruto's head lifted off and he looked at Sasuke as he peeled apart from him. He went over to Suigetsu and shook him. They muttered in low tones, Sasuke trying to get him to fall asleep in his own room. Suigetsu waved him off and got up wearily looking over everything. "You said he was going to scream."

"I said it was likely. Go on up to bed." Sasuke said and began following him up. He stopped and waited for Naruto to walk over to the stairs before going any further. "We'll have to wash off your tattoo in about three hours, I'll come by and wake you up for it."

Naruto nodded drowsily and followed Sasuke out with little thought inside his head besides 'that hurt.' The other thought was actually him thinking about a thought. Naruto hadn't considered it much, or at all, though it was always there dashing out in his brain. Naruto was stopped as he had kept walking in a straight line. Sasuke had caught him by the wrist before he went too far. "You're not a morning person are you?"

"It's not even morning yet… And now my back hurts." Naruto mumbled, the blond was far too ready to go back to bed. Sasuke had to pull him by the wrist and keep checking that he was walking alright. Naruto thought he was awake enough to walk properly if he stopped thinking. Something inside his head decided to keep that fact between him and the neurons. There were no slip ups on the stairs, Naruto just looked at them trying to stop from laughing at everything in his head.

Together they moved across the hallway well after Suigetsu had retreated inside his room. Sasuke let Naruto in and kept his grip on his hand. The blond turned to look at Sasuke and see what the matter was. Sasuke was smiling; the expression gave his face a tinge of admiration. Sasuke's eye gazed over his face lightly, now was his time.

In a smooth gliding motion Sasuke took two bare-footed steps towards Naruto. Naruto looked a little shocked at this until Sasuke released his wrist and rolled his eyes. "Do both of us a favor, that noise you made while getting tattooed, don't let it out again."

Sasuke took one step in reverse and began turning away. Naruto smiled right back. "Oh and why is that?" He asked playfully. Sasuke wasn't expecting something that foreword, he wondered if Naruto knew what he was talking about. He wasn't as stupid as everyone made him out to be, in fact, he was normally a great deal smarter, he just has no imagination.

Sasuke matched his smiled and moved back to standing directly in front of him. "I don't think you really want to know that."

"I think you're scared to tell me." Naruto shot back. Sasuke was a bit stunned for a second and his facial expression showed it. Sasuke started glowing, for a second he was pretty sure he was dreaming and decided to make the best of it.

Slowly Sasuke let his hand trace up Naruto's arm, he reached over his shoulder and grabbed Naruto by the nape. It was the longest second Sasuke ever had leaning in to the boy he had had a crush on for several years. The first thing Sasuke thought was that Naruto needed Chap Stick. His lips were dry and rough, but then again most boys were, his were. The second thing going through his mind is that he should get Naruto to bed, not with him, just get him to sleep.

The only thing Naruto thought of was an overall feeling of general warmth and total serenity. Needless to say Naruto summed his emotions up to the fact that he had only kissed two people ever and had zero experience. The first person he had ever kissed was actually a frog he was hoping to come out and be a porn star princess. The second was a mishap he didn't want to happen; he had kissed Sakura and held her after her father died a year ago. He avoids the subject now since Sakura will automatically cuddle to him no matter where they are if her father is brought up.

Sasuke was the one to pull back making the kiss quick and cheap. It was rounding nearly fifteen minutes since he had gotten up, he wanted to go back to bed. Sasuke removed his hand slowly from Naruto. They smiled at each other weakly. "I'll wake you up when we have to clean your tattoo."

"Good night Sasuke." Naruto said somewhat fondly. Sasuke walked away down to his door, Naruto watched and the closed his door when Sasuke was far enough away. Being somewhat confused and happy he stalked over to his bed and sat down quietly. Naruto had been dodging the issue in his mind since he had left the restaurant. Could he actually fall in love with Sasuke? How much different could it be then a girl?

Naruto took in a sharp breath and slowly crawled into bed clutching the pillow. He decided he'd do something about it in the morning. He needed to go back to sleep right now without any worries. As Naruto crept off into sleep, all he could feel was that warmth surrounding him.

---------( --------- )---------

Sasuke lay in the dark of his room quietly observing the stillness of it all. He was somewhat regretting kissing him now, more than that; he was regretting not kissing him harder and longer. There was a brief pause in his head to observe that Naruto wasn't off limits anymore, he was a Black Bird now. Sasuke could have him if he liked. Naruto had also hit back which was confusing to him; he didn't know if Naruto could be gay. Some try and fail, just like he would if he tried to be straight.

He took a deep breath and rolled over in his sheets. 'What's going to happen tomorrow?' Sasuke's head just filled with worries he tried to shrug off. It ended up he spent a half an hour tossing and turning trying to get his head clear of all the useless questions. After the half an hour, he couldn't take it and got out of bed.

Sasuke opened his door to the darkened hallway and crept by going up the stairs. The only person who would really talk about it is Karin; and that was if she would wake up. The entire walk was totally silent as he made his way to her door and opened it knocking slightly. She was collapsed over in bed with a huge stuffed animal under her arms. "Karin…"

"Hum?" She said looking up at the blur. Karin grabbed her glasses from her side table and put them on. Yawning, she instructed: "Turn on the light.." Sasuke did so and walked in closing the door behind him. "Sasuke, what's the matter?"

"I can't sleep at all." Sasuke said quickly and crawled up on her bed next to her. "There are these millions of questions in my head that I don't know the answer to and they're suffocating my brain."

"Questions, from what?" She asked stretching.

"So we tattooed Naruto… And something clicked and we kissed and now my head is on a high speed connection. It's like I have ADHD or something, I try to get to one question and another pops up." Sasuke said and ran his fingers through his hair. He took a few small breaths, "this hasn't happened before."

"Well, you didn't like any of your previous boyfriends, Hell, they were more like flings. You're worried because you don't want to mess this up. That's kind of cute." Karin said cheerily. Sasuke smiled and tried to shrug off the compliment. "Just put 'ask again later' as all the answers and go back to sleep alright? Worrying is for the day time. I'm going back to sleep."

"You're a wonder." Sasuke said hugging her and leaving the bed. "I'll have to get you a new stuff animal."

"Screw that, I want gerbil." Karin replaced her glasses and fell over on her pillow.


	14. Skipping

Sasuke woke Naruto up as he said he would. Around six-thirty Sasuke walked into the blonde's room and shook him awake gently. He waited for Naruto to lift his head up and knelt down telling him softly they had to wash his tattoo. Sasuke had hoped the two were the first up, however Itachi kept strange hours and had been down in the kitchen for two hours already studying.

Sasuke was kind of hoping to turn the tattoo washing into something more. He wouldn't though, not with Itachi there just sitting in the middle of the floor. Every now and then he would speak repeating some random facts about Kenya. Sasuke finished and wiped the dampness off Naruto sighing. He wandered over to the fridge and pulled out two lunchables tossing one at the blond. They were about to head upstairs when Itachi, not even looking up, grabbed Sasuke's arm. "Stay here, I want to talk with you."

"I'll be up in a bit." Sasuke reassured Naruto who nodded leaving them. Sasuke collapsed on the floor next to his big brother and waited to be scolded.

"You told Kisame that you not only got Zetsu arrested, but you fought him." Itachi closed him books and looked at Sasuke. Sasuke was expecting something along the lines of if Madara found out. "He was truly dangerous, he's not some little punk."

"He's not that dangerous if he thinks you're dangerous and crazy. Anyway, the first thing I did was take his gun away." Sasuke said trying to defend what he did. "He pointed it at me…"

"He had a gun on you?" Itachi asked surprised, he set aside his books. "You could have been killed."

"I took it away after I made him think I was crazy," Sasuke was still trying to defend his position. He didn't expect to win. "I don't expect you to understand, he was only forty feet away from where Naruto was."

"I do understand that, but you're risking you life where it isn't needed. You should have called me; I could have had Zetsu called in for something else if he had gotten close enough." Itachi said and looked at him, "and you didn't even tell me."

"Because you'd freak out like this. Anyway, he would have just been at it later when I wasn't there, I took care of the problem! He was posing an intimate threat and I solved it."

"If he had squealed on you, you are gone, black bird is gone, everything is gone and me and everyone else is up for conspiracy to commit murder!" Itachi yelled, it was rare for Itachi to yell. Sasuke actually felt ashamed, "You're lucky he was too terrified of you and Madara to speak. He cut out his tongue."

"That's gross." Sasuke said and stood up. He was about to start walking away as Itachi picked his book up again, "where's the gun, Sasuke?"

'In my room, on the floor, still in my pants.' Sasuke just shrugged, "I don't know, I just tossed it somewhere. I'm scary enough without a firearm."

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Naruto lied to his gym teacher Guy saying that he had thrown out his back doing something stupid and ridiculous. He wasn't angry, the teacher was excited that Naruto was trying extreme sports and promised to give him full points for the day. Instead of going in to change Naruto walked over to some gym mats that were folded up and sat down with his bag. He was thinking of bringing out his laptop but remember how fierce the sports get in the gym.

Naruto sighed and just pulled out the printed out version of his story and began reading through it. He actually thought it was funny. As the gym started to fill up he put it back in his bag and decided he's just watch whatever was played in front of him.

"Naruto Uzumaki!" Sakura snapped loudly walking over in her gym clothes and she sat down next to him. "Why aren't you changed?"

"I hurt my back, it hurts…" Naruto knew that lie wouldn't hold up so he turned away and began to watch some younger kids playing basket ball. "Did you see that: he just got hit in the face?"

"Naruto…" Sakura growled, Sai walked over also in gym clothes and sat to the other side of him and looked away. Naruto looked between them and gulped. Sasukra looked like she was going to hit him. "You're lying to me."

"Sai, help please." Naruto asked and Sasi looked at him. Sai usually had something cold and intelligent to say. Naruto hoped this time, it would be directed at Sakura. However Sai as always said something that would hurt Naruto's case.

"Lying is bad." The words came out flatly without any emotions what so ever. Naruto grabbed his bag and was about to move when they both held out their hands and stopped him. "Sakura wants to talk to you about something."

Naruto thought Sakura had found out what he did last week and started defending himself. "There is no proof that I threw shaving cream bombs at the teacher's cars. This is defamatory, I will not let slander…"

"Naruto… We helped you bomb their cars." Sakura said rolling her eyes. Naruto let out an 'oh yea' not remembering the incident that well. Saukra pulled out her bright pink bedazzeled cell phone and opened it up. She pressed a couple buttons and pulled up a picture. "Before I show you this, you had better have a good reason, got it?"

"I guess… I don't know." Naruto waited for her to show him the picture. Sakura sighed and tilted the phone his direction. Naruto looked down and saw Sasuke and himself sitting by the window at the diner. He didn't get it at all and looked at her somewhat confused. "And…"

"Well. What do you have to say for yourself?" Sakura asked and snapped the phone shut. Naruto just shrugged, he didn't see anything in it. "You don't have anything to say?"

He shook his head, "I was bummed out and they took me for cake. What do you want me to say?"

"Sakura thinks they are bad chickens." Sai said incorrectly. Naruto and Sakura took a second to laugh at his sentence. "Is that a funny thing?"

"Bad eggs, not chickens." She pointed a finger at Naruto. "They are like the worst people in the school, how can you just go off willy nilly with them. Especially with him, he's…"

"A good friend." Naruto tried to end the conversation there and then. He knew his back wasn't injured, he could easily break past both of them and escape. He grabbed his bag began walking out of the gym. The two caught up to him. "I have nothing more to say about it. You mind as well go back to playing volleyball or something."

"He's a druggie…" She posed and Naruto quickly shrugged off the notion.

"No, he's not. He doesn't even drink; all he does is smoke, which he is trying to stop by the way." Naruto went into the gym hallway where he set his bag down and sat down himself. He needed to clean his tattoo soon. It felt like it was peeling. "Just sit down and listen, alright?"

Sakura huffed to herself, she didn't want to hear what he was going to say. She thought he was just being stupid. Sai's mind was pretty clear of all thoughts except following the order he was given. The two waited while Naruto gathered his thoughts.

"They've kind of adopted me; they're really awesome people in different clothing. Like Sai, Sasuke draws, he's amazing at it, even better then you." Sai took a second to think about it. "And Suigetsu like to beat on people just like you Sakura."

"So what, that doesn't change who they are and what you did!" She folded her arms and looked hurt. "You argue with us for making some honest fun and ditch us. You go off with them instead of us. We've been your friends for years, he nearly left you for dead."

"He was going through a hard spot when he did that." Naruto defended quickly. Sakura was somewhat surprised. "I'm not going to explain it but after thinking about it, we're both kind of glad it happened. I got stronger and he mellowed out a lot. Anyway, I would have only died if he had kicked my head a couple more times…"

"You have Stockholm Syndrome." Sai said quietly getting their attention. "You are a victim identifying with a capturer or abuser." Naruto immediately began denying it and found himself accidently scratching his back. He pulled away instantly and clasped his hand under his leg. "I've read about it in Freud, you get used to it…"

"First off, I do not have Stockholm Syndrome." Naruto said loudly. "He's not a capturer or an abuser, he's a friend. A good one who doesn't interrogate me or call me out because I don't think making fun of other people is funny. Lastly, Freud sucks and most of his teachings have been discredited."

"Naruto?" Sakura asked staring at him and his hand accidentally went straight back to where it was scratching earlier, "why do you keep scratching your back?"

Naruto noticed his hand had come out and he was indeed scratching it. Naruto swore and went into the boys' locker room; he knew Sai had followed him. Naruto quickly flung off his shirt, technically Sasuke's shirt, and checked his back in the mirror. "Goddamn it. I think it's irritated."

"You got a tattoo!?" Sakura shrieked walking in next to Sai. Naruto besides the obvious 'this is the boys' locker room,' didn't have anything to say. "Why would you get a tattoo? You're sixteen. Jiraiya is going to kill you."

"Jiraiya's not going to find out!" Naruto stressed to her. Naruto just grabbed a paper towel and wet it down. He went over it lightly a few times before stopping, "why are you freaking out about what I'm doing? It's not like any of it's bad."

"It is, you were tattooed, you're hanging out with the bad kids." Sakura muttered and began to walk away.

"What if they're not the bad kids? They work hard, they get good grades, and they support each other. And through that, they've never make fun of other people, they're really generous and they've had more hardships in their lives than you can ever imagine." Naruto angled himself and dabbed the tattoo lightly.

He waited for responses from either of them but they were quite. Naruto washed his tattoo completely and put his shirt back on to see Sakura just glaring at him. Sai was rather indiscriminate on the subject and was looking at the graffiti on the walls. Naruto just looked passed them and went outside to the hall and picked up his bag.

He didn't want to argue with them anymore, he just wanted a break from them, to see things from a new side. Naruto, for the first time in his life, walked out on a class. He walked out of the hallway, walked out of the gym area, and stopped on the other side of the vending machine kneeling down in front of Karin and Suigetsu who were somewhat surprised. "Is Sasuke here today?"

"Was, he said he'll be back. He went home for lunch, should be back maybe near the end of school if you want to wait." Karin said sticking a piece of carrot in her mouth.

Suigetsu leaned foreword, "you upset me; you were supposed to scream." He said quietly and leaned back. Karin slapped his chest with the back of her hand quickly. "He was, he didn't scream at all, I slept through his tattooing."

"Why don't you just go to Black Bird, Sasuke's having a tough morning if you haven't noticed." Karin stated quietly. Naruto had noticed, he nodded towards them and took off out the buildings. "He's skipping…"

"We are such marvelous influences… Maybe we should write an editorial to the school newspaper. 'How to be a bad influence without really trying by Suigetsu…'" Karin slapped him upside the head and laughed. "Now you're contradicting yourself."

"It'd never get published." She said and kept eating. Karin knew everyone on the staff was horribly stuck up; a kid like Suigetsu would never get published in it. Hell, they even rejected normal kids just because they didn't like them.

"Wanna bet a lunch on that?" Suigetsu smiled, he had a twisted little idea in his head, and he knew how to win the bet. Karin thought it over for a minute. "Or how about chores around the house for a week?" They shook hands immediately.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Naruto took the teacher parking lot exit out and began walking down the sidewalk when several of the teachers were walking up. To no surprise, Kakashi was among them and stopped him by simply putting a hand on his head, "and where are you off to?"

"I need to go collect my thoughts; the last few days have been really hard on me." Naruto said pathetically. He was being truthful, and Kakashi could tell because Naruto looked like he was about to start crying. Kakashi sighed, rubbed his hair and kept walking. "Wait, you're not going to yell at me?"

"Nope, you've had enough to deal with. Being a teenager's hard enough without having a house burn down. Just get your assignment in either today or tomorrow, alright." Kakashi said and turned to, what Naruto assumed behind the scarf was, smile at him. Naruto watched his teacher walk off for a minute before continuing to walk away.

For a few minutes, Naruto staved off tears, but he did just feel really bad. He felt like curling up on the sidewalk like he did yesterday. He was yelled at basically for making new friends. And then Sasuke…

Naruto wandered for a few minutes wiping away a few tears here and there. He didn't want to show up in front of Sasuke crying. He knew he wouldn't be laughed at, but he did want to do it. He walked towards the house and when he looked up he saw two familiar eyes staring at him. With one last effort Naruto stopped crying and wiped his eyes.

Sasuke was sitting on the steps of the entrance house smoking when he spotted Naruto a block away. At first Sasuke thought it must be someone else but Naruto was probably the only one with a dark blue shirt with the British Royal family's crest on it. Sasuke took a second to inhale the smoke than dropped the cigarette and smudged it out with his foot. He stood up and walked over the five feet he was away to meet Naruto.

"Why aren't you in…" Sasuke stopped and saw the condition around Naruto's eyes. Naruto tried to turn away for a minute but Sasuke grabbed the side of his face and held him there. "Are you crying?"

"I was, a little. I'm kind of having a bad day." Naruto muttered.

Sasuke quickly wrapped an arm around Naruto's shoulder and began leading him up the steps. "The last thing you want to do is be crying on the street, one of the druggies thinks he's Sigmund Freud. He's actually not that bad at it except he goes around in drag."

Naruto laughed some as they went inside the entrance house, he couldn't figure out why Freud was being tossed around today. Sasuke let go of him to head down the stairs first, "he's really good with ink blot tests too, but it's hard to look at them when he's in a tight red dress with fish nets. I swear it is the funniest sight."

Naruto by now had cheered up; he hadn't noticed that Sasuke had done it in a few simple sentences. The young Uchiha however was fully aware and took it upon himself to keep the task up. "What's really fun with him, is when you act like him or talk to him from his point of view, he calls you completely insane."

Sasuke threw himself down on the couch and watched as Naruto sat right next to him. "I kind of what to meet him now. He seems like he'd make an interesting conversation."

"I'll take you to meet him later, just come up with a mental disorder in the time being. It makes it hilarious. Make it something strange too." They laughed together in the quiet of the Black Bird's basement.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Itachi was half way thinking of not going to see Madara, but then again, he needed to know what the crackpot was up to himself and not second hand where details go missing. To another of his distresses, he came in eleventh on the test. He wouldn't be going to Kenya, he's have to find his own way around to getting his observation paper done.

Itachi walked into the Science building and walked through the hallway being stared at by all the students in lab coats. Someone not in a lab coat or suit was odd here. He ignored their gazes and just went up the stairs to the first door and barged in. The meeting in Madara's office was somewhat still in progress which he had paused by walking in and throwing himself down in a corner. As the door shut Nagato continued talking about the issues at hand with Zetsu in custody. "He can't be linked by any evidence, however they have an intention to link him somehow to the campus and do full out explorations. We'll be uncovered completely if that were too happen."

Itachi almost muttered 'good' but kept his mouth shut.

"The lower level subpoenas won't hold up in court," Deidara charged quickly. All the intention in the room turned to him, Itachi noted that he looked drowsy. He wondered how late Madara had called him and informed him of the arrest and it's his job to get on it. "It's too broad, it'd be accusing the college itself of wrong doing which they'd have to prove intent that the college was planning on harboring a criminal or using him in someway.

"I've already talk to a district attorney who has links to the campus, they're refusing to prosecute him with links to the college besides the killings he's done. They're taking the angle that the college was an 'opportunistic spot for the slayings of young men and women.' We're pretty safe."

"I knew having a lawyer was a good idea." Madara rewarded himself with the compliment. He jotted down a note on his piece of paper really quickly and turned to his eldest nephew. "You could make it, why don't you share your idea?"

"It's not an idea, it's common sense. If you redo all the research on animals, you can release the documentation. If you release the documentation you'll get more followers and the funding you need. Also, if you go back to actually being scientist and not conspirators, we wouldn't have to worry with a lawyer or being found out because we'd have nothing to hide, idiots." Itachi crossed his arms and turned away, he didn't care what they thought, he was right and he knew it.

The room went silent for a few minutes before Kisame broke out laughing, "he called you all idiots."

"You're included." Itachi snapped quickly. "How many times did I tell you there wasn't a garbage disposal? At least twenty."

"Why don't we dismiss the meeting, I'll be in contact soon." Madara said standing up, the room soon emptied except him and Itachi. Madara walked over and sat down in a chair next to Itachi, "so, what are you so angry about?"

"I came in eleventh. I have to find another way to do my travel paper." Itachi looked up and stared at the ceiling. "I could probably go to Candada for cheap…"

"Where'd you want to go?" Madara asked remembering Sasuke's request.

Itachi shrugged, "I'd like to go to Australia. I think studying the Aborigines would be interesting. However that's thousands of dollars and I have a week until I have to declare where I'm going."

"I'll pay." Itachi stopped and looked up at him, "Just let me know when you have to go and I'll get everything set up."

Itachi took a second for himself, the offer seemed to good to be true, he thought there must be a reason. "Okay, thanks. Why are you going to pay?"

Madara gave an answer Itachi didn't want to hear but wasn't surprised by. "Sasuke asked me to if you didn't get into Kenya, he even offered to give up his allowance for it. I told him not to worry I'd pay both." Madara wasn't doing it for Itachi, he was doing it for Sasuke.


	15. Macing is fun

After Naruto was fully happy again Sasuke felt it was safe to ask him what had made him so upset in the first place. Naruto explained what had happened with Sakura and Sai even going on about how Sai had messed up the phrase 'bad egg.' He talked about Karin and Suigetsu then leaving and being stopped by Kakashi. Sasuke listened to him carefully; Naruto finished and looked at him. "Well?"

"You defended me? Wow…" Sasuke didn't know what to say, he figured Naruto should have at least let Sasuke fall some so he could keep them as friends. Sasuke simply shook his head, "I'm at a loss…"

"Well, everything they said was untrue. Did you expect me just to let them call you a druggie and stuff like that?" Naruto didn't realize it but he said it a bit angry. Sasuke noticed that the anger was related to him, when someone tired to talk bad about him. For a minute he thought Naruto would go on the offensive. "They're just mad because I left them and went out with you. Just because I li…"

Naruto stopped mid-sentence and snapped his mouth shut abruptly. Sasuke smiled, he saw this as a 'fun opportunity' to see what Naruto thought of him. Without hesitation Sasuke leaned over to him. "Just because I what, Naruto?" Naruto back up a bit to the other side of the couch, Sasuke followed until he decided to speed things up and pinned Naruto to the couch. Sasuke had his arms crossed resting on Naruto's chest letting his head hover above the blonde's. "Just because I…"

Naruto was somewhat reluctant at Sasuke's advance for a while and kept his mouth shut thinking. He still hadn't decided what he was to do with Sasuke, what he was to him. Naruto was positive he was going to say 'Just because I like you doesn't mean I'm a degenerate.' He was pretty sure Sasuke only cared about the beginning of the sentence. He was at an impasse for telling him though, he didn't know what would happen. While Naruto was thinking Sasuke grew impatient. "I didn't shock you into a coma or anything, did I?"

Naruto shook his head and Sasuke laughed, "What's so hard about finishing a sentence then. Just blurt it out." Sasuke lifted a hand and traced it along Naruto's face. "You were so bold last night, I was surprised. Now it seems you've turned quite the opposite. It's just one simple sentence, Naruto."

Naruto took a deep breath through his nose and let it fill his lungs. He stared, lost, in the Uchiha's eyes beaming down on him. Naruto's lips opened and a small breath escaped. "I like you."

Sasuke's smiled grew wider. "Was that really all that hard?"

"You wouldn't believe…" Sasuke lowered his head interrupting Naruto. He caught his lips and held them to his for a few seconds before pulling back and moving to kiss him on the forehead. Sasuke finally got off him and chose just to move into the little space there was between Naruto and the couch's back. Sasuke smiled up at the ceiling and felt Naruto moving. Sasuke watched as Naruto got up. Sasuke thought he did something wrong until he turned around smiling. "A couch does not fit two people like that."

"The red one pulls out into a bed, of course, Jugo's the only one who can put it back and I'm not explaining that…" Sasuke mentioned quickly. He reached into a pocket and pulled out his phone checking the time. Sasuke noted that they had plenty of time to get back for their last block. Smiling the Uchiha got up, grabbed Naruto's hand and began dragging him upstairs.

"I should probably be getting back, I'll miss my lunch." Naruto tried to say without sounding hesitant. Part of him wanted to stay, it wanted to stay and get back to their fun on the couch. The other was telling him about law and justice.

Sasuke responded to the statement by jerking him towards the kitchen, "We do have food here." Naruto thought they were going to stop in there but the grip on his hand kept leading him upstairs. "We have two hours nearly before the next class starts and I have a car. We're fine."

When they reached the top of the stairs Sasuke pulled Naruto along a few more feet and stopped leaning against a wall. Retracting his arm to his side Naruto moved closer. Sasuke laid his free arm around Naruto's neck and smiled. Sasuke went to move in again but Naruto backed off a bit. "We shouldn't be skipping school."

"Kind of late for that isn't it?" Sasuke said pulling his head back. He thought this was a terrible time for Naruto to have doubts about something so meager. Sasuke knew from loads of experience that one day, one class wouldn't matter. "I've been skipping since fourth block, and you basically walked out with a teacher's blessings."

"I know, but it's because I wanted to work things out in my head not make out. Ah, wait, that come out wrong…" Naruto said quickly. He racked his brain to try and find the right words for what he meant to say. "What I'm trying to say is that we shouldn't skip for something we can do later."

"Firstly, if we make out later, Karin will be trying to invade the room every five minutes with a camcorder. Secondly, I've skipped to take naps before, it's nothing. Anyway, you're already gone from gym, you don't need to be there for lunch, and I'll get us back in time for class." Sasuke waited for the reaction, he found it when Naruto stepped foreword into him. Sasuke had won the discussion and knew it. "Just give in alright?"

That was what the blond did. Sasuke over took him quiet easily. Naruto was somewhat unsure what he should do with his spare hand having never been in this situation before. He shouldn't just let it dangle freely; he thought that might put off Sasuke in someway. Nervously Naruto slid his hand to the side of Sasuke's waist.

They stood there locking lips for a couple minutes until Sasuke got bored with just that. It was in his nature, he wanted more. His arm unlatched from around Naruto's neck and moved it down his back slowly. Naruto felt the chill from his touch; it sent small waves down his back. Sasuke didn't stop however until he grabbed Naruto causing him to break apart. Sasuke simply smiled and laughed a bit, "I'm grabby."

"I can tell." Naruto then felt as they were forced together tightly by his hand. This close Naruto had not been prepared for. He was relieved however when Sasuke pecked him on the cheek and removed his hand from his ass. However, that was due to the fact Sasuke was planning on dragging him away into his room. Naruto didn't notice this until Sasuke entered and jerked in him behind him. "I don't know if I'm okay with this."

"Don't worry," Sasuke said smiling and sitting down on the bed. He released Naruto's hand slightly to turn his hand and interlocked their fingers. "We don't have to do anything, but a bed is possibly the best make-out spot. Come here."

Sasuke pulled his hand back slowly as to not force Naruto. The blond moved foreword steadily and leaned his head down to Sasuke's. They began to tilt back and fell onto the bed. There was much giggling to be had between the two for an various reasons. One was that they actually fell pretty hard onto the bed and it jolted them. The second was they were thoroughly enjoying themselves.

The one thing Sasuke thought was wrong was that Naruto was on top and probably had no clue what to do as a lead. Sasuke decided to resolve the matter quickly and without notice grabbed Naruto's shoulder and flung him off. He did this and quickly mounted the blond shoving their lips together. Sasuke's hands draped down his softly and then found his wrists and moved them above their heads and held them there.

Naruto now felt like he was a captive. He was pinned down at the wrists, was being sat on and Sasuke was being a little violent in his kiss. This was Stockholm syndrome, there was a possibility Sai was right after all. Their heads broke apart for a second and Sasuke playfully licked Naruto's lips. Naruto opened his eyes to see Sasuke staring at him with a small hint of amusement to his eyes.

Out of breath from the activity Naruto tried to regain it and ended up accidentally gasping. Sasuke laughed at him and released his wrists. With a sighed he rolled off Naruto and landed on his back. Smiling he turned his head towards Naruto, "sorry, I forgot humans need air."

"Yeah, it's alright." Naruto huffed and sighed looking back over at him with a goofy looking smile. "You only need to breathe once every three minutes right?"

"If you're professionally trained, try thirty seconds at the max and you'll be good." Sasuke said and pulled out his phone, they had wasted a few minutes. He flipped through and set his alarm then placed it on his side table. Sasuke sat up, made Naruto also get up and lay back on his bed patting the spot next to him. "We still have like forever, mind as well get in a nap."

"I think I need it." Naruto said and fell down next to him and looked at him. Naruto lifted his arm offering to Sasuke who moved close to him cuddling to his chest. Wrapping their arms around each other they were quite for a minute until Naruto was ready to pass out. "Night."

"You know… this means you're gay." Sasuke pointed out and lifted his head a bit but he couldn't see Naruto's face. Naruto let out a grunt noise to question him. "You just made out with a guy and are now cuddling him, congrats, you just switched sides."

"You know, labeling people is stupid." Naruto said quietly. He pulled Sasuke closer to him and held him tightly. "You of all people should realize that nothing good comes from labeling people. Why give in to labels?"

"Mm-m? It's easier sometimes." Sasuke contested, they both knew where the conversation would end up. Sasuke decided to end it quickly, "I give, just go to sleep."

Naruto didn't react; he just slowly fell asleep coddling Sasuke in his arm. Sasuke for some reason had a harder time falling asleep. He gripped the top shoulder of the blond and forced himself against him with a nagging fear for some reason. It was the fear he'd do something wrong. Karin hadn't help him get rid of the fear, she just told him what it was. Sasuke kind of thought that was worse.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Itachi didn't even to bother realize that his brother should be in school. He picked up his cell phone immediately after leaving Madara's office and dialed Sasuke's number. It picked up on the third ring to a very quiet "what is it?"

"That's not the normal greeting, what's up?" Itachi asked with his curiosity peaked somewhat. "In a theater or something?"

"No, I'm in a nap time. Listen, can I call you back later?" Sasuke whispered trying to keep his voice audible but still as low as possibly. He didn't want to disturb the blond entwined with him.

Itachi stopped on the steps of the science building and sat down glaring as some of the other high ranking members moved passed him. "Nap time? With whom? You didn't get a cat, did you?"

"No, listen, I'll call you back later." Sasuke hung up the phone leaving Itachi listening to a dead line. Itachi sighed and put his phone away as Kisame walked up and looked at him, "What?"

"How'd the plumber go?" He asked. Itachi growled something in a dark tone and stood up. "Not well, huh?"

"No, it was fine, they just sent the pipe snake down and replace a few sections, it's the floor boards you have to worry about. The floor in the kitchen had to be ripped up, the entire thing is going to have to be replaced and it's going to cost you a lot of money." Itachi said and began walking out to where his car was parked in front of the building.

"Where you going?" Kisame asked as Itachi flew down the stairs.

"I'm going to go visit baby brother. He's having nap time." Itachi said and began to get in the car. He sat down shut the door and turned to see Deidara sitting in the passenger side seat. "Get out."

"You're not even going to let me ask my question, are you?" Deidara asked and pulled out a small folder. "I have the answer in here, I haven't looked at it yet, I just wanted to know if I'm allowed."

Itachi set the keys in the slot and turned to him sighing. "What is it?"

"Why do you hate Madara so much? Doesn't he spoil you?" Deidara asked looking at him. "I've been doing all this research and translating for you guys and you're the only one who I can't find a reason to have a beef with him."

"First off, Madara doesn't care for me, he likes Sasuke." Itachi admitted out loud and waited a minute thinking. "Madara owned the warehouse where the Heroin ring my father discovered was distributing from. He claimed no knowledge and cleverly got a third party involved as the leaser separating Madara from the incident.

"He took Sasuke and I in out of guilt. I knew the truth, he doesn't care for that. Sasuke however was vicious and ignorant, he adores that." Itachi waited for a minute and held his hand out for the file which Deidara handed over. He opened the car door, "I know you sometimes see Sasuke in Sasori's class, but I'm warning you, if you tell Sasuke that Madara owned the warehouse, I'll kill you myself. Got it?"

Deidara swallowed and evacuated the car. As soon as the door shut Itachi drove off like a bat out of Hell. Kisame walked down to where the young lawyer was standing and shook his head. "Man, he's going to end up hitting someone and I'm not going to be there to laugh."

"What'd be cool is if they exploded on impact." Deidara muttered and they began to walk away discussing the imaginary death.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Needless to say, Itachi was a bit confused about what he was doing. He wanted to talk to Sasuke about the request to their dastardly uncle. That he was completely positive about, however the contents of the conversation and the tone were lost. Itachi raced through Black Bird and finally reached the upstairs to find it completely quiet. He walked silently over to Sasuke's open door and looked inside to see the scene.

He couldn't help it; Itachi thought it was cute so he said "aww." Sasuke's head shot up and glared at him with a dirty look. Sasuke waited for a minute to see that his brother wasn't leaving, he was laughing. He waved Itachi off angrily but that just caused him to laugh a bit harder and shake his head.

Reluctantly Sasuke released himself from Naruto and carefully climbed out of bed shoving his brother out in the hall with him. He closed the door quietly and quickly proceeded to slap his big brother upside the head. "There's for ruining nap time."

"See, now aren't you glad I made him stay over here in the first place?" Itachi pointed out and they began to walk away from the door some. Sasuke snickered and stuck out his tongue. "Anyway, you told Madara to pay for my trip."

"You said to milk him for money." Sasuke summed up his words and sat down on the stairs. "I decided that as my only brother you were a good enough cause to fund. That and I want a Kangaroo pelt."

Sasuke smiled cheekily waiting for his brother to say something. Calmly with a little smile Itachi reached his hand out and placed it on Sasuke's head. He messed up the already messy bed head and began down the stairs. Sasuke sighed and got up returning to the room where Naruto lay sleeping in his bed. He opened the door and walked in quietly. The door creaked as it closed but the blond didn't stir. Sasuke crept across the floor and over to the bottom of the bed to climb in. Sasuke lay down burying his head in Naruto's chest. He slowly moved his arm in under Naruto's and grasped for his shoulder to cling to.

It took Sasuke a few minutes to get to sleep. As he was drifting away, he realized his dreams were coming to fruition. As he closed his eyes, the only thing he knew was that he didn't want it to stop. He wanted this to last.

If Sasuke had been awake for a few seconds more he would have heard Itachi creeping back up stairs turing the volume off on his phone. He did this, walked into the room and snagged a picture of it so he could go around and show it off. He walked out slowly turning off the light. Closing the door behind him he looked at the picture on the screen with was interrupted by a small phone symbol and the name 'KISAME.' He sighed and answered. "What?"

"Deidara and I were wondering if you hit anybody… Oh, and if the body exploded on impact."

Itachi rolled his eyes and laughed into the phone. "No, I'm very good at not hitting people with my only car. Anyway, I have to go, I'm going to observe the nap time."

"That sounds boring. Why not just take a nap?"

"That's what I meant, use the other definition of observe. Later." Itachi hung up his phone and turned it off.


	16. Conspiring

Naruto and Sasuke did make it to the school, only four minutes late. Sasuke was enjoying Naruto freaking out about it as he sipped away at his coffee. They entered the building and Naruto lowered his voice but kept going on. "We could have been here five minutes early but you had to make a detour."

"I wanted an iced mocha, it's good. Want a sip?" Sasuke asked offering the drink to him. Naruto shook his head and they turned down the hallway to enter the classroom. Most of the class went quiet when both walked in together and took their normal seats at the opposite of each other.

Kakashi put his book down and looked at them. "You're both late… At least you showed up. Well, now… I'm going to finish this chapter. If you need to finish anything up on your stories, you've got about ten minutes."

The class began to pull things out of their bags when ringing was heard. Sasuke didn't hesitate and picked up his phone. He pressed a button and smiled. Without looking up from the phone Sasuke walked the camera over to Naruto and showed him. "Itachi took it."

"That's cute." The two stewed over the photo for a second before they noticed the presence of a third person. They looked up and saw Hinata there. Both stopped and entered a state of worry and fear. If they were found out more then just being outcast-ed would happen. Naruto gulped, "Um, Hinata…?"

"Awe, that is cute. I didn't know you two…" Hinata found herself with a hand over her mouth very quickly. Sasuke had reacted at just the right time. The both of them made a 'shh-ing' noise and, with Sasuke's hand still clamped over her mouth, led Hinata out to the hall. As Naruto closed the door to the classroom Sasuke finally released her.

Hinata didn't know what to make of this. She quickly retreated across the hall and kept herself busy by fumbling with her hands. The two of them stared at her making her nervous. "What?"

"First off, spying isn't nice. I'm pretty sure it's illegal." Naruto pointed out and Sasuke gave him a curious glance. He caught the look and continued, "Secondly you can't tell anybody. Don't even think about it, just wipe it from your mind and forget ever seeing that picture."

"Why?" Hinata asked quietly and took a step towards them. She grabbed the phone and held the picture up to both of them. "That's not anything to hide. I think it's cute. If you two are going out, it's nothing to worry about.

"Anyway, secrets never stay secrets long. It will get out that you two are seeing each other sooner or later." Hinata said and handed the phone back to Sasuke. She smiled and looked at him, "Before you kidnapped me, I was going to offer you my seat if you wanted to sit next to Naruto. I don't mind moving."

Sasuke smiled at the offer. "Thank you." He said and opened the door to let Hinata in first. Naruto passed him with a face of indifference obviously thinking on Hinata's words. Sasuke let the words fall flat, he knew what he was and what commonly happened to him. The phantom pains in his stomach often returned when he thought about the beatings. He entered leaving the door open and shoved what little he had pulled out of his bag back in it and grabbed his drink.

As he got up and crossed the room he happened to glance over at his teacher. Kakashi glanced back and than continued his readings. Sasuke set his stuff down as Hinata evacuated smiling at the both of them. Sasuke flopped down and smiled over at the blond he could get used to this rearrangement.

"Alright…" Kakashi said getting up from his desk. He walked to the front and sat on it looking them over. "I see we have a new seating arrangement, did you not like the color of your original seats?"

"No, it's just I needed new carving space, the other desktop is too full. Figure I need to at least ruin one more desk before school gets out for the summer." Sasuke mused quickly and flashed a smiled.

They all turned to HInata as she looked up at them making a loud noise. She had been reading the carvings on Sauske's old desk, "I don't know what any of this says. It's all in French…"

"You know," Kakashi said looking at the Uchiha. "You have to pay to repair the desk at the end of the year. It's like fifty to sixty bucks."

"It's why I have a rich uncle." It was all he said on the topic and returned to his normal mood. Kakashi sighed and moved on to how they were going to start writing their speech on something that was actually happening in town. Sasuke and Naruto smiled as they heard the topic: Quantity versus Quality. Maybe Sasuke would give a speech tomorrow.

---------( ---------- )---------

Class ended uneventfully as normal. Everyone packed up and left leaving Sasuke waiting on Naruto to gather his things. Sasuke just stared patiently with his hands gripping his backpack straps. Naruto finally finished and zipped up his bag to look up and See Sakura and Ino enter the room. Protectively, and almost instinctively, Sasuke stepped in front of Naruto and glared as both the girls stopped. They stood quiet for a second before Naruto set his hand on Sasuke's shoulder and pushed in front of him. "What is it?"

Ino quickly shoved Sakura foreword. "Sakura has come to apologize. Haven't you?" Ino said meanly.

Sakura took a deep breath in and huffed it out. "I'm sorry about the things I said earlier and judging like that. I guess I was just upset, though it was Ino who sent the photo."

Ino grunted as Sakura passed on the blame, they began into an argument that Naruto quickly broke up. "You apologized, that's good enough for me, and I don't really care if you took the picture. Alright?"

The girls smiled and nodded. "So, are you still coming to lunch with us?"

Naruto turned around and looked at Sasuke who made a shoo motion with his hands. Naruto said yes and began out the door with Sasuke behind him. Sasuke was going to keep quiet and just walk away, it was Naruto who turned and said "See you at home."

The girls exchanged quick glances. Sakura was the one to ask, "Home? Are you living with him now?"

"Yeah, him, Karin and Suigetsu. There's another guy but you wouldn't know who he is." Naruto said not thinking it was a big deal. Sakura and Ino escorted Naruto out to the front where the normal group was assembled. The group, however, was unusually quiet as they approached. They went to College Row to a familiar restaurant everyone liked and ate nearly silently until Sai brought up the movie they saw yesterday.

Naruto didn't go and see it, he was busy playing solitaire then out with the Black Birds. He felt somewhat excluded but kept to himself and just ate his food. He was getting bored with them, he wanted to go. He was thinking so much that he didn't notice until Ino snapped her fingers in his face that he was still at the table. "Hey, yea, welcome back to earth."

"Sorry, I was thinking." Naruto said somewhat depressed. He stirred his salad absent-mindedly and waited for something to happen. What did occur was that the group began what they thought would be an 'intervention.'

"Naruto, we think you should spend less time with Sasuke." Ino said softly in a somewhat positive tone. Naruto dropped everything and stood up with the chair screeching backwards. He was met by a hand on his shoulder; he turned to see Shikamaru sit him back down. Naruto scowled and shook his head. "I don't want to hear their stupid arguments."

"Neither do I, but if you don't listen to them when their reasonable, they'll go psycho." He explained and looked at the two girls to see them upset. He shrugged, "you have to admit, you go psycho a lot."

They both pretended not to hear that and continued. Sakura clasped her hands together and set them on the table trying to look like she knew what she was saying. "We feel that Sasuke is a bad influence, he's not the most reliable of people. He skips school a lot, and not to mention his uncle is the leader of your opposition. We just feel like being with him would be a bad place for you to be in."

"And his friends are pretty bad too. One's a prostitute and the other has killed. We just don't want to see you in danger." Ino tried to say sweetly.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Are you two done yet? I want to get out of here."

The girls stopped at the rudeness in his comment. Chouji was the one who stepped in. "There's no reason to be mean about it. They're just worried for your safety."

"He does have a point." Sai noted towards him and Naruto shook his head looking for anything distracting. As luck would have it, something distracting did happen. Just then two men in suits walked in arguing, one had long blond hair and the other short red hair. The group went quiet and watched them. They all recognized Sasori.

The two kept arguing as they went towards the counter and picked up an order, on the way back Sasori noticed Naruto. He stopped and turned to the table, "Itachi said you were hanging around Sasuke."

"Yeah. What about it?" Naruto asked wondering why Itachi would give out a detail like that to someone on the opposite side. That was when he realized that Sasori must be working for the same side Itachi was.

"Sasuke, have him call me. I have a proposition for him about the Quantity movement." Sasori flipped a card out of his lapel and handed it to Naruto. "Also, give him my thanks for the cannibal problem. I thought he was going to be trouble for us."

"You and me both." Naruto shoved the card away and shook hands with Sasori. He left with Deidara yelling at him to hurry up or he'd steal his car. The group looked at him, he really didn't think of it as much besides he could now trust someone else.

"Did you switch sides?" Sakura asked quietly. Naruto remained unresponsive. Sakura jumped up slamming her fists on the table for attention. "Did he get you to switch sides?!"

"I didn't switch sides, Jesus… Why don't you sit down?" Naruto said with a bit of agitation, overall, he seemed somewhat clam. That bothered Sakura greatly as she followed the order. "If you haven't noticed, the movement's a lot more complex then what you know. There's not just two side with scientific views, there's a lot of betraying, dirty work and even murder surrounding both of them. So don't yell at me about switching sides when you don't know what the sides even are."

Somewhat satisfied, Naruto stood up grabbing his bag and began walking out when he heard a chair behind him. He turned slightly to see Shikamaru was following him. He got outside and stopped, "Are you going to letcture me?"

"No, I figure you need someone to listen who doesn't give a damn. Plus, I'm getting tired of them too, following you is an excuse to get away before the estrogen cocktail goes off." He got Naruto to laugh a bit out of it and shoved his hands in his pockets waiting for something to be said.

Naruto usually wasn't quiet, but for a while he was just that. Nearly completely silent besides two sighs he finally gather his thoughts. "Have you ever felt…. No…. Life is too hard."

Taking a deep breath the blond thought of another way of saying it. "Say you live in one place your entire life. You think you're doing what's right and good. One day you leave and go someplace else, you expect it to be wrong or bad right? But it's not, and it makes you see that some of the things you've been doing… It's not what you've been wanting to do."

"The grass is always greener?" Shikamaru asked.

Naruto shook his head. "It's hard in both places. It's like choosing to be ignorant or educated, except if you become educated…"

"Persecution? The Chruch persecuted scientist because their discoveries ruined there perfectly happy little world. They discovered flaws in the bible, and found proof that things weren't done by God but by natural process. The Church in anger began to call them witches, anyone who acted out, believed something different, or who knew science was tortured or killed. That?" Shikamaru asked. He thought of the only thing he could possibly connect to what Naruto was trying to say.

Naruto stopped and thought scratching his head. "Actually, yes, that's the whole thing basically to a tee. Sakura and Ino are the church and I'm the other guy. But yea, Sasuke and the others aren't that bad as everyone thinks they are. I actually think they're better most of the time."

"I'd believe it. Sasuke does have the highest grade in class even if he doesn't show up that often. He's not stupid, that's for sure." Shikamaru said and they kept walking down the streets until they ended up at Naruto's house. "Alright, well, I have to get home. If you need someone to talk to…"

Shikamaru waved and walked down the street as Naruto looked at the house. The wall was rebuilt, new siding was put on. Naruto sighed; he hadn't been to Jiraiya's house in a few days and hoped he'd have his key on him.

---------( ---------- )---------

Kakashi had been asked to keep an eye on Naruto for Jiraiya and Tsunade. He did so; he kept track of his grades, what happened in school, and even signed on as this year's varsity baseball coach. He was however slightly confused on what to tell them seeing as Naruto had seemed to make a new friend and was picking up on some of his bad habits. Plus, it also mattered that the friend was an Uchiha.

Sighing Kakashi walked up the steps to the Higgins Medical Building and entered seeing the halls empty for once. He forgot that right now, people are usually just starting classes. He heard a noise to his left and was hit by Shizune. Her papers went flying everywhere and she grumbled. "Sorry, Kakashi, Tsunade's having me run papers today…"

"Here…" Kakashi quickly grabbed them all and handed them back to her. "Is she in her office?"

"Yeah, she's up with Jiraiya having tea." Shinzune said, thanked him and then ran off to another room. Kakashi shook his head and began walking up the stairs thankful that he would only have to tell his story once. Kakashi stopped outside a large white door and knocked twice waiting to be let in. After a second or two Jiraiya opened the door and joyfully pulled him inside. "I just finished my latest book; it'll be on the press soon. Tsunade won't read my books, will you?"

"I find them stupid, immature and sexist, and that's only from the first paragraph...." Tsunade retorted peacefully and picked up her tea cup taking a sip. She set the cup back down and motioned for them to sit. "So, how's Naruto?"

"Well… Um, how do I phrase this? He seems to be… changing." Kakashi tried to say delicately. The two both stared at him. He sighed again. "Since the house fire, Naruto's been… challenging a lot of things he normally has. Jiraiya's noted he's not staying at home. I've seen him drop most of his usual friends. However, the paper he turned in today for class, it's the first A I've ever been able to give him. The other teacher's have noticed a slight improvement as he's not talking with his usual friends as well."

"Well then…. He must be staying at a library or something…" Jiraiya said thinking. He waited for a second and turned back to Kakashi, "So, he dumped all his friends, who's he hanging around now?"

Kakashi's mouth twitched behind the scarf. "He's started hanging around a group, somewhat of a gang, they've been called 'the Black Birds' around school. They don't really do anything; every now and then you'll see them in the principal's office for arguing and the occasional obscene word or gesture. They have been known to steal, one of the members killed a man once when he was very young, and it's said one of their members is a prostitute. They do have known connections to Quantity."

"We're going to have to have a talk with Naruto." Tsunade said growling. She bit down on her thumb nail thinking.

"One more thing, the leader of the gang… is Sasuke Uchiha, he's Madara's nephew and ward. Sasuke ran away from Madara three years ago but still keeps close contact. I was in the office this morning when he was registering a brand new Corvette Madara bought him for a parking permit. Sasuke was also the one who hospitalized Naruto all those years ago, and he killed the man who killed his father. He may be dangerous." Kakashi waited for the silence that followed. Tsunade's jaw dropped. Jiraiya just shook his head. "Today, Naruto skipped out on his gym class due to a conversation with two of his friends. I met him outside, he was distraught and on the brink of crying. He returned two hours later smiling and late to my class with Sasuke. There's a rumor going around school that he's moved into wherever Sasuke's staying."

"Has there been any other weird behavior?" Jiraiya asked crossing his arms.

"Well, Sasuke did get sent something in class, he showed Naruto. Another student saw it and they immediately dragged her into the hall. Nothing major became of it." Kakashi said and waited for their responses.

"So… Do you think he's in danger?" Jiraiya grumbled scratching his wild hair. Kakashi shook his head. Kakashi knew Sasuke probably thought he was clever, but Kakashi had dechiphered his paper with what he saw in class. Sasuke was in love with Naruto, he knew this fact from the wordings and description of the boy. Jiraiya got up and began to leave the office.

"Where are you going?" Tsunade asked.

"Home, if Naruto's moving in with him, he hasn't gotten his things yet. He'll be back for his PS3 and games." Jiraiya slammed the door shut behind him.


	17. Bondage Pants

**Aki: hi... there's no reason for this interruption, I just wanted to say hi, it's lonely in the library...**

Naruto was able to get his games out of the safe easily. He could tell Jiraiya really hadn't been in his office since the fire. Naruto carried the duffle bag to his room and set it on the bed next to his backpack. He felt weird being in the room, it was like something from childhood to him now. He sighed and sat down on the bed staring at all the posters of the frogs and video games. The frogs he decided to leave here and then went through his knick knacks, he would be walking, and he decided to leave all of them here. Besides that, he just needed clothes.

With some skill Naruto grabbed his light-weight thirteen inch television and fitted into the bag with his game system. He stood up and began to remove the video game posters and rolling them up carefully in one large cylinder. He set that in the top of the duffle bag and shut it tightly. He heard a noise of a car outside that stopped. In his head, Naruto told himself to get out through the window but he wanted to make sure Jiraiya knew he was alright. He pulled out a third bag, another duffle bag, and set it on the bed opening it. The front door could be heard opening.

Naruto moved over to his dresser and opened his drawer and took out most of his boxers. There were footsteps in the hall. Naruto dropped them in the bag and moved back to close that draw and open the next one. "Naruto, whatcha doin' kid-o?"

Naruto looked up at him as he grabbed a shirt from his drawer. Jiraiya was looking seriously aged; he wasn't his normal happy self. Naruto noted this and stopped for a minute. "I… I'm moving out. I'm going to live with some friends. You alright?"

"I guess… I was told by a little bird that you've befriended an Uchiha." Naruto began going through his shirts quickly. "The fire was linked to Quantity."

"I know…" Naruto said quietly and tossed the shirts in the bag. Jiraiya knew he had gotten information from one of the Uchihas, this was bad. He figured if he kept Sasuke's name out, he'd be safer. He quickly returned in the dresser.

"Here's something you don't know, a serial killer was sent after you. Luckily he was arrested." Jiraiya said softly. He hoped that would stop him, but it didn't.

"I did know that. I knew about the fire, about the green haired cannibal, and I'll know anything else they try to throw at me. He told me about the plan to burn the house down. He told me about the green haired guy then led him away from me and called the cops. He's the only reason I'm alive. I think I'm safer with him…" Naruto was going to say 'then you' but stopped. He shoved some socks and pants into the bag and closed it. "I'll come by and visit."

Naruto arranged all the bags and walked passed Jiraiya. The door was heard slamming a few seconds later. Jiraiya picked up his phone and huffed. He dialed Tsunade.

---------( ---------- )---------

There were no cars parked outside of Black Bird as Naruto approached, this meant that Sasuke wasn't home. Naruto hoped that someone was at least there; otherwise it would just be him and any music that came on the computer. He entered the secondary house and smelled smoke and saw some cigarette butts on the ground next to a lighter. Sasuke was here earlier.

Naruto entered unabated and walked upstairs to his room. He opened the door and tossed everything on his bed next to a small folded up note. Grabbing it, Naruto sat down and read it quickly. 'Karin and I went shopping. Watch out for Suigetsu, he's been acting funny. If you think you're life is in danger, get into my sock drawer. If you're not in danger, _STAY OUT_ of my sock drawer. There's a buck fifty extra in the jar if you get hungry. – Sasuke'

Naruto was now wondering what was in Sasuke's sock drawer but he was afraid Sasuke would get angry at him if he looked. Naruto set the note down and saw the bottom of it. There were two little words on it and they made Naruto smile, he decided to keep the note.

Grabbing his backpack Naruto pulled out his laptop and set it on the floor turning it on. He spent a few minutes waiting for it then getting his media player up. Assuming he was alone Naruto just clicked on a random song and turned it up. He grabbed his bag as My Chemical Romance began blaring and pulled out his posters. As he unrolled them and sorted them he heard the music suddenly change over and over again the stop on a slow song.

"What the Hell? You've got Backstreet Boys? That's disturbing." Naruto turned to see Suigetsu crouched on his floor flipping through his songs aimlessly. He stopped and smiled, "sweet, I love Chevelle. Ahh… you have three of their albums. Do you have the actual CDs?"

"Uh, no. I borrowed them." Naruto said somewhat confused. He watched as Suigetsu continued through his music. "Can I help you in some way?"

"No, I'm just browsing." Suigetsu said like he was shopping. He stopped, got up and ran from the room only to return a minute later with a burned CD. "Have you ever heard Hollywood Undead?" Naruto shook his head. "You're about to. Just don't take some of the lyrics too seriously. Kisame has a problem with them because there 'obscene and profane.' Like I care."

Suigetsu fumbled with the laptop for a second before Naruto ejected the disk drive for him. Suigetsu dropped the disk down and shoved the drive closed and brought the CD up. Naruto listen to it for a second, "what genre is this?"

"Rapcore. Hardcore rap," Suigetsu said and looked over at all the posters. "I was right, Sasuke was trying to get you to move in. I should call him out on that. Holy shit, you have an Alice poster, it's like the size of the wall…"

"Yeah, now I just need to find a way to stick it up. I don't have any tape or anything." Naruto said and scratched his head.

"Dude, Sasuke just put his posters, I'm sure he put the leftovers somewhere." Suigetsu said, "let's go raid his room."

Naruto was a little hesitant at first but eventually dropped the poster and began out the room to the neighboring one. He opened the door to Sasuke's spotless room and saw that his posters were put up with clear scotch tape. He looked around carefully and saw the tape on top of his dresser. Naruto grabbed it and returned to see Suigetsu looking through the other posters. "Man, where do you get all of these?"

"I buy them from the internet usually. The Resident Evil poster I got from the movie theater." Naruto said and shoved some of the posters aside grabbing said poster and shoving it on the wall. He held it up and realized he didn't have enough hands. "Can you help?"

Suigetsu stood up next to him and held the poster up so Naruto could tape it down. Suigetsu sighed, "so… What are you to Sasuke?"

"Huh?" Naruto said finishing taping the top then moving to the bottom.

"You heard me." Naruto stopped as Suigetsu pulled his arms down and looked at Naruto reaching for something in his back pocket. "Sasuke's been my best friend for years, and I'm not going to let anyone change that. So, what are you to Sasuke?"

"Um… Boy… friend… somewhat… err…" Naruto struggled with his words. Suigetsu calmed down and left what was in his back pocket alone. "Were you going to stab me or something?"

"Possibly, I actually like slicing better than stabbing. However you do not threaten me, so were cool, okay." Suigetsu stuck out a hand and Naruto shook it nervously. Suigetsu looked down and pulled up another poster, "Master Chief… Awesome."

For the next few minutes they put up video game posters practically wallpapering the room in them. Naruto sat down on the bed and looked around, all he had was the bed and a chair. He would have to get a table soon. Suigetsu sat down next to him and pulled out a small object and held it up to him. It was a thin oval that was bright red with a large silver dragon on it. "Newest knife, bought it yesterday with Kisame, first knife I ever spent money on."

Suigetsu flicked his wrist and a thin silver blade with a red dragon imprinted on it came out. Suigetsu stared at it carefully and closed it shoving it away. He looked at Naruto who seemed a bit worried. "You're not comfortable around knives are you? It's not like I'm going to stab you unless provoked."

"It's just, I'm kind of clumsy and…" Naruto said and Suigetsu got up and disappeared again. Naruto just shut up until he started hearing metal crashing. He got up and walked down the hall to see Suigetsu pulling knives out of his wall. He examined each and then tossed it on the floor carelessly. He stopped as he pulled out a thick knife and looked at it. Without warning Suigetsu took it and slid the blade along Naruto's skin.

Naruto jumped back and checked his arm, he wasn't cut. Suigetsu began laughing at him. "This is a stabbing knife, I dulled down the sides." Suigetsu closed the blade and tossed it at him. "You can keep that one, I like slash-y."

"Um, thanks." Naruto said not sure what to do with it. Shoving it in his pocket a high pitched quick whistle echoed upstairs to anyone listening. Suigetsu moved passed Naruto and reached the stairs before looking at him awkward for not moving. "Oh, do I come too?"

"You're a Black Bird now, you come every time. You're a little slow on the uptake, aren't cha?" Suigetsu raced down stairs as Naruto casually did not sure of what he'd find. As he reached the bottom stairs leading into the kitchen he looked and saw the floor was filled with shopping bags.

Karin was the first to approach both of them with a small clear plastic cage. "I got a gerbil! Isn't she cute! I named her Karin, after me."

"Great, now any minute she's going to start bitching." Suigetsu muttered unenthusiastically. He stopped and crossed his arms thinking. "You know, I think I've eaten one of these rats before… Someone dared me to do it, who was it?"

"You're not eating little Karin!" Karin said and began up the stairs with the gerbil. As she left, Sasuke walked in with two bags half the size of a full grown human and set them on the floor. He looked around, "where's Karin get to, she has to get her cage and bedding yet."

"Suigetsu remembered eating a gerbil in front of her." Sasuke made an 'oh' and walked over to Naruto pulling out a few bags. "What all this?"

"We went shopping for everyone." Sasuke said cheerily, "I checked my debit card for the first time in a month; Madara's put five thousand dollars on it for me. Figured I should get everyone things, mainly new sheets, we've had our old ones forever."

Sasuke then picked up one of the large bags and handed it to Suigetsu. "Since you have no bed, I just got you some new blankets and a new pillow. There's also a small sleeping pad in there."

"Sweet, this reaffirms why I prefer here to Kisame's." Suigetsu began shuffling through the bag and headed upstairs. He stopped a few up, "dude, why are there fish on the blankets?"

"You like fish, remember?" Sasuke waited a minute before Suigetsu agreed and kept going upstairs. Sighing Saskue walked over to Naruto and leaned his head on his shoulder. "How'd Suigetsu behave?"

"Besides kidnapping my laptop to play offensive music, good, actually." Naruto said and wrapped one of his arms around Sasuke's shoulders. "He helped me put up my video game posters after ranting about each one."

"Yeah, he only gets to play when he plays with Kisame. So you moved out of Jiraiya's then?" Naruto nodded and Sasuke lifted up his head and patted Naruto's face with his hand. He was going to lean in but he heard footsteps upstairs. "Come help me sort stuff out, would you?"

Naruto nodded and set his bag down as Sasuke started going through the items. A lot of it was personal things, he bought Karin bathroom needs, some knife sharpeners for Suigetsu, a couple puzzle books for Jugo. As Naruto was watching he noticed something, "what'd you buy for yourself?"

Sasuke stopped and smiled, "check your bag first." Sasuke waited and saw Naruto pull out a pillow followed by a large bed set with no other then Yoda on it. Naruto burst out laughing and Sasuke grabbed a bag and pulled out the opposing Darth Vader set.

"Oh no, we're not five, I swear." Naruto said sarcastically and put his set back in the bag. Sasuke started laughing. "What?"

"That's what Karin said as I was pulling them off the shelf." Sasuke said and calmed down with the smile remaining. He heard a noise and turned to the hall, a second later Jugo popped out of the basement. "Home early?"

"Nawh, blew the power. Jirobo thought two air conditioners would work better then one. Fuse box went up in flames." Jugo said and stopped leaning in the door way looking at the bags, "where'd the money come from?"

"Madara." Sasuke said happily and grabbed a bag searching it. He removed a few articles of clothes and tossed what he had bought for Jugo in the bag. "Merry Christmas. There's puzzle books in there along with some guitar tabs."

"Tabs?" Jugo grabbed the bag and pulled them out. He smiled as he went through them. "Metallica… I'll never be able to play some of these. They're too fast."

"You can attempt." Sasuke said and watched as Jugo began upstairs nodding to Naruto. Naruto stepped out of the way and allowed him to pass. Sasuke went back to sorting everything out and tossed another bag at Naruto. "I assume since you wear my shirts fine you're just about my size."

"I should be." Naruto said and opened it up to see a big heavy black thing on top. Naruto looked questioning up at Sasuke.

He shrugged. "Karin's theory, she wanted you to have bondage pants. I told her they wouldn't be your style but she doesn't always listen." Sasuke continued and left the piles sorted out. As he stood up grabbing his bag Naruto glared at him.

"Hey Sasuke," Sasuke looked up at him, "in the note… what is in your sock draw?" Naruto asked. Sasuke took a breath and looked down for a second. "You don't have to tell me."

"No, it's okay, come on." Sasuke said and lead him upstairs to his room. He walked in setting his things off to the side and waited for Naruto to come in. Sasuke quickly shut the door and opened the drawer. He fished around for a second before feeling something cold and pulled it out. Naruto saw it and felll down on Sasuke bed. "It was Zetsu's… I took it from him."

"You have a gun? What if it accidentally misfires and kills you?" Naruto asked freaking out somewhat. Sasuke rolled his eyes and opened the barrel showing it was empty. "Oh, sorry."

"You worry too much." Sasuke said setting the gun back in. He was careful not to let it hit the sock he had tossed the bullets in. He closed the drawer and walked over to Naruto with a slick little smile. Bending down Sasuke kissed him on the forehead. "Go open the door would you?"

"Sure," Naruto said and got up passed Sasuke to open the door to an empty hall way. Sasuke quickly stripped his bed of the old sheets tossing them in a pile against his dresser. He grabbed the Darth Vader sheet set and began to dig into it. "You really like Darth Vader, don't you?"

"Yea, he's amazing. Sacrificed everything he knew to try and save Padmae… Though he did ended up causing it." Sasuke shrugged and pulled them out looking them over. The bottom sheet was the Star Wars logo against black, the sheet on top of that was a giant full body of Darth Vader. He made the bed, stared at it thoughtfully then threw himself down relaxing. "They're soft…"

"Well duh, their new." Naruto said obviously from across the room. He waited a second and then went to grab his things from the floor. "I'm going to my room."

Sasuke's hand went up beckoning him to his side. Naruto stopped in mid-motion and walked over to him. Sasuke motioned him a little closer; Naruto took a step. It was enough Sasuke could wrap an arm around his waist and pull him down on top of him. "Hi."

"Instead of that, next time just ask." Naruto said adjusting the awkward angle he was at. He looked down at Sasuke with mild displeasure. "That kind of hurt, like a lot. Please don't do that again."

"Okay." Sasuke used his other hand to pet the side of Naruto's face. Naruto was the one this time to move first. They kissed lightly then Naruto rolled off him and finally felt the sheets. "Wow, these are soft."

"Told you." Sasuke sighed and looked over to see why it had been so brief, the door was open. He should have just told Naruto to close the door, or better yet not to open it in the first place. Sasuke ran his fingers down Naruto's hand and locked their fingers together. "I wish the force existed, I don't want to get up to shut the door."

Naruto laughed slightly. He was about to say something but Sasuke's phone went off, Naruto turned away. Sasuke sat up digging through his pocket and pulled the phone out. He lay back down and answered it. "Bonsoir, moi frère."

Sasuke listened to the call uncomfortably slowly constricting Naruto's hand. "Yeah, we'll all be down there. Yea, he's right here… Don't worry, big brother." Sasuke hung up the phone and sat up shoving it away. "Come on."

Quietly Sasuke moved up and out of the room Naruto a step behind. Sasuke raised his free hand and whistled loudly. Suigetsu was the first one to burst out of his room. Not a second later there were two door slams upstairs. Jugo and Karin practically leapt down the stairs. "Meeting now, Itachi and Kisame will be here in a second."


	18. Fire Alarm

The basement was quite for a few minutes. Jugo had taken his own couch, as had Karin and Suigetsu leaving Sasuke and Naruto the large red one. It wouldn't have been that bad but every time Sasuke looked over at Naruto he could only remember him telling him the couch pulled out into a bed.

After about five minutes Karin walked up in front of them. She quickly put her hands on her hips and looked at everyone, "while we have time I'd like to reiterate that only Sasuke's allowed in my room, got it lobster?"

Suigetsu stuck out his tongue but behaved. Karin continued, "also, little Karin is not food, when she's out we don't play soccer with her ball, things like that. Also, no smoking, of any kind, around little Karin. We do not give the gerbil alcohol or rat poison"

"I get it; I'm not allowed to fuck with the gerbil." Suigetsu said tired of her talking. Karin stopped and walked back over to the couch looking somewhat pleased with herself. Suigetsu sighed, "You could have just said, 'hey don't fuck with my gerbil,' but no, you have to be fucking showy."

Suigetsu was hit upside the head by a large hand. They looked up to see Kisame had come down with Itachi behind him. "No swearing. It makes you look like your stupid and like you don't know any other words."

"Rag on him later, Kisame." Itachi barked quickly and shut the large metal door behind him. Itachi took the floor space, "we have a huge problem. Madara…. The…. He got a hold of nitroglycerin. He's been taking very small amounts for weeks and storing it away. He's got enough saved up to blow up a skyscraper."

"What's he going to do with it, they'll link it back to him faster then anyone would ever imagine. He's the Dean of Sciences! He's the only one who could get access." Sasuke asked sitting forward and looking at him. He took a second of the silence, "he's going to kill someone, isn't he?"

"He's getting impatient, he's also been planting false records in the Medical building in the fire proof areas. He's going to blow up the Medical building in a bit. Kisame and I have to avoid suspicion since they will link it to Madara and Quantity, we have to clear out the cadaver lab of the new medications, can we bring them here?" Itachi asked looking at him.

"Yea…" Sasuke said and relaxed back. Kisame and Itachi quickly left just as they came. Sasuke took a deep breath and saw as Naruto turned to look at him, "we have to go get them out of the building. They'll be blown to bits."

"No, they'll be burned to death. There's probably no time." Sasuke said and looked over at Suigetsu, Karin and Jugo, they just stared at him.

"We've got to try at least; I'd rather try then do nothing knowing I let them die!" Naruto yelled standing up and stuck out his hand. "Give me your keys." Sasuke shook his head. "I'll take them from you."

Sasuke moved quickly and grabbed his wrist. Naruto copied him and Sasuke grabbed the other wrist and stood up. "Going in their spastically won't help anyone, it'll get you killed. Secondly, your not driving my Corvette, you'll scratch it. I'll drive."

"I'm coming." Karin and Suigetsu said simultaneously. They both stood up and walked over. "Karin and I are sticks; we can share half a seat."

Sasuke turned his attention to Jugo. Jugo shrugged, "I'm… just gonna stay here. Your car's too small. I'll lie for you if someone asks."

Sasuke proceeded to lead them up to the street where the car was and they filed in. Naruto had to share a seat with Suigetsu who had Karin sitting on his lap biting her nails. Sasuke gunned the car down the street and drifted it around the corner.

"Holy shit, this is not the Fast and the Furious." Suigetsu complained as they all fell over each other. Regaining a normal direction they sped up quickly. "Man, you need to like… take a fucking driving lesson."

"We have limited time. Stop complaining." Sasuke said and barreled into the college. He stopped the car in the street illegally. He didn't care, it was after classes and the street was practically closed. The first thing Sasuke noticed was that the Science build was dark and all the cars were gone from its parking lot.

"How are we going to handle this?" Sasuke asked looking to Naruto. Naruto wasn't expecting this. "Come on, this is your thing, how do we get them out without letting them know anything?"

"Ah…" Naruto shook his head for a bit. "I say we just grab whosever in there and drag them out if they won't come on their own accord."

"Works for me." Suigetsu said and opened the door letting Karin and then himself out. Naruto and Sasuke got out closing the doors and looked over to the medical building. Naruto didn't waste any time and rushed over to the building running as fast as he could over the grass towards the parking lot. The rest of the Black Birds present followed him closely and they charged the building.

Naruto opened the doors to the empty building and looked around. There was no one around, Sasuke came up behind him and touched his shoulder gently. "Where are they usually at."

"That's the problem, there usually in her office up there but the lights out. Their cars are here though." Naruto scratched his head quickly. He got an idea. "Karin, Suigetsu, you two check the second floor, we'll check the third, come on."

The four raced up the stairs then split up with Sasuke and Naruto taking the third floor. Reaching the top of the stairs they looked down the hall and didn't see any lights on anywhere. It was then there was a loud whistle from downstairs.

They went back down stairs and saw Suigetsu and Karin waiting outside a small door reading 'PRIVATE LAB –NO UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL.' Naruto ignored the sign and turned the door knob rushing in on a small group sitting around talking. Naruto stopped practically a hair short of Tsunade, "you've got to get out, they're going to blow up the building."

"Blow up the building?" Tsuande said and looked around at the people around her. She smiled, "don't be silly. No one's going to blow up the building."

"Madara's been skimming a large quantity of Nirto." Sasuke said walking in with Karin and Suigetsu behind him. "If you don't get out you will burn to death in a matter of seconds after the explosion."

"You're one of his nephews, aren't you?" Tsunade asked shrewdly. She was about to start calling him into question but Naruto interrupted. "THERE'S NOT TIME FOR THIS! GET OUT OF THE BUILDING NOW!"

Without warning the fire alarm sounded and the sprinklers came on. The group finally took heed to the warning and began to evacuate the building leaving the Black Birds in back as they ran out the building. They raced out the front doors and heard a loud snap and an exasperated gasp.

The boys turned around to see Karin falling. She smacked the marble floor hard and looked up through her glasses as a small amount of blood dribbled down the side of her head. Naruto and Sasuke were about to go get her but were stopped when they saw a large flame erupt from the second floor.

"I'll get her, you two get out of here." Suigetsu called and rushed back in for their fallen comrade. Sasuke grabbed Naruto and pulled him out of the building quickly not letting him watch to see if they were alright or not. It was then the explosion went off and Sasuke dragged them both to the ground pulling as much of Naruto under him as he could.

The noise was thunderous; it quaked over them with the glass breaking and sounds of the building changing. The heat could be felt as it went out in bursts then died down. Sasuke lifted up his head breathing hard and looked behind him to see Suigetsu and Karin.

The two were on the ground barely off the steps. Suigetsu slowly lifted himself off Karin, let out a painful whine and fell off her whimpering. Karin sat up and looked at him, his shirt was on fire. She tired patting it out but just ripped his shirt off to see the burned skin beneath. She started breathing hard and began crying herself. "Help!"

Sasuke bolted over to them and checked on Suigetsu. Sasuke touched his back and he grunted and shrugged away. "Good news is your nerves are still intact… we have to get him to Kisame."

"Okay…" Karin muttered. She didn't do anything; Sasuke grabbed one side as Naruto got over and helped him get Suigetsu up. Sasuke put Suigetsu's arm around him and began leading him to the car. "Naruto, get Karin."

Naruto knelt down to Karin and offered her a hand. She took it and let him pull her up off the ground and lead her to the car. Sasuke waited with a half conscious Suigetsu. Karin understood to get in first. "You're going to have to hold Suigetsu."

"I'm fine…" Suigetsu said softly, Sasuke finally got a good look at his face, he was crying. Suigetsu noticed and turned away. "It hurts a bit."

"You can't stand by yourself right now, just let us help you until we can get pain medication in you." Sasuke asked him. Suigetsu nodded and Sasuke looked in, "this is going to awkward. Um…."

Suigetsu placed a hand on the Corvette and moved in by himself. He sat on Karin facing her and wrapped his arms around her setting his head on her shoulder. Karin was still crying and Suigetsu couldn't help but comment, "must have been some pretty expensive shoes… Now you're going to be walking like a gimp."

Sasuke and Naruto kept back as Suigetsu kept making comment after comment until Karin was laughing. Even though he was in severe pain his focus was to make her feel better. Naruto smiled, "are they…?"

He ended his sentence there. Sasuke shook his head and quietly commented, "he likes her though, a lot. Too stubborn to admit it."

"Naruto Uzumaki!" Came a yell from across the field, Tsunade was slowly making her way over to him. Naruto quickly dug in his pockets and handed Sasuke Sasori's card. "He told me to have you call him."

"Okay, it look like you're getting dragged away, I'll see you tomorrow then?" Sasuke asked as Tsunade was about fifty feet away. Naruto nodded and he quickly hugged Sasuke and let go running towards Tsunade. Sasuke shut the passenger's side door and went around getting in. They would have to beat the police out. "Karin, you have to keep him in place, do you understand?"

"Yeah." She said still somewhat meekly and wrapped an arm around his head. Hesitantly she slid a hand in on of his back pockets to keep him still too.

"That's unwanted physical touching…" Suigetsu jested at the placement. "Sexual harassment! She's grabbing my ass."

"No I'm not, you don't have an ass, you're too skinny." Karin retorted in her normal manner. "You're entire back's burned if you haven't noticed, placements are limited."

"You just wanted to grab my ass, admit it." Suigetsu said and Sasuke turned around a corner somewhat gently and passed several speeding police cars. "Go back and get them, I'm going to have her arrested."

Karin didn't really think her action threw. She pulled her hand out and smacked him. "You need to shut up."

Suigetsu did shut up for a second before he leaned into her ear and said something foul. Karin repeated he earlier action a lot hard to the point it was so loud Sasuke actually looked at them. Suigetsu broke out laughing and Sasuke knew what he was going to say. "Don't you dare Suigetsu, I swear to God there's a chance she'll kill you."

Suigetsu ignored the Uchiha. Suigetsu smiled and propped himself up to look her in the face smiling. "Spanking, kinky. Though you really should wait until were alone."

Karin looked at him, you could tell from his eyes and the tears that he was still in pain. He was so pathetic she couldn't do anything. Instead the she broke down crying. Suigetsu stopped; he wasn't sure what was wrong with her. "Hey, I didn't mean it, I'm sorry."

"You're all burned up because of me and my stupid heels…" Karin cried and Suigetsu rewrapped his arms around her. They were home a few seconds later and Sasuke stopped the car right behind Kisame's Hummer. "I'll go get Kisame to help."

"I'll be here." Suigetsu said just held on to Karin. "I'll be fine, I just wish you'd stop crying." Karin looked down at him, "I'm the one in pain, not you. It's bad enough I'm crying."

---------( ---------- )---------

Naruto walked over to Tsuande and looked at her as she stopped and promptly smacked him across the face. Naruto grabbed his cheek and looked at her. "What part of those people are dangerous does not go through to your head?!"

"They saved your ass, you should be more grateful. Suigetsu's entire back is all burned." Naruto snapped right back at her. Tsunade somewhat twitched. Naruto was afraid she might snap but was luckily saved when Shizune rushed over.

Tsunade saw the look on her aid's face and calmed down. "When the police arrive, you will tell them what happened, everything you know including about your friends, and then you'll be going to Jiraiya's house. Is this understood?"

"Nope. I'm not telling the police anything. I'm not telling anyone anything." Naruto said quickly. "You know what will happen, there will be no proof, Sasuke and the rest of us will be taken in by the state again, oh, and guess what; Quantity would win claiming you're running a slanderous campaign. Tattling on them isn't going to get us anywhere."

"So, you're not going to tell the police anything, then what do I say, a little bird came in and warned me?" Tsunade said throwing her hands on her hips. She looked at him upset for a minute. "Alright, I'll say we smelled something weird."

"Are you alright Naruto?" Shizune asked as Tsunade walked away towards the sirens signaling them. Naruto nodded and Shizune offered her jacket to him. Naruto refused. "We owe you and your friends a lot. Thank them for us, would you?"

"I will if they live past the severe beating they're going to get." Naruto said and saw an old beat up car come up the street. He looked over and saw Jiraiya get out running towards them. "You missed it, there was an explosion."

"I heard it." Jiraiya said walking over and looking at him. Without any regard for injury, Jiraiya quickly grabbed him and hugged him. "Tsunade called me. You're a hero!"

"You got here pretty fast." Naruto commented and Jiraiya let him go explaining a stupid situation where he left his new script on his desk. Jiraiya then went on to explain why he came here instead of his office. "I really want to go stay with my friends, one's injured. He fried his back pulling out another one of my friends. I need to make sure they're still okay."

"The ambulance let them go home?" Jiraiya shrugged and clamped a hand on his head. "You can go back tomorrow, but tonight, after this, Tsunade just really wants to know where you are if anything happens. She thinks of you like a grandkid, just like I do. We worry about you."

"Alright, I guess." Naruto said and shook hands with Shizune who quickly left before Jiraiya asked for a hug again. Several police came and interrogated Naruto, flashing lights on him. Naruto of course didn't give out information and just said he went out with everyone else. Jiraiya wasn't there at all and just showed up, that's what he told them too.

They were good to leave and filed in Jiraiya's car to go home. Naruto sat in the passenger's seat uncomfortably. "Can I borrow your phone to call them at least?"

"I guess. Just don't get spit on it, some idiot… " Jiraiya growled and got lost in thought. "Luckily he flipped off his bike." The writer dug in his jacket for a second and handed in the thin black phone which Naruto went into messages.

"You kept my message right?" Jiraiya nodded. Naruto went and played his message listening to the number. He ended the message early and dialed the number.

---------( ---------- )---------

Sasuke, Itachi and Jugo stood around and could only watch as Karin held Suigetsu. Kisame had injected him with the same medication that he had given Naruto and went to work scraping off the dead tissue. They were all very queit for it until Sasuke's phone went off. He walked away from them and pulled it out looking at the unfamiliar number. "Hello?"

"Hey, It's Naruto."

"Oh, hey. Wait... where'd you get my number from?" Sasuke asked somewhat confused, he didn't remember giving it to Naruto at all though he should have.

"From the diner, I left a message on Jiraiya's phone. I just redailed. How is he?"

"Suigetsu's getting his back peeled by Kisame," Sasuke said quietly turning to look at the scene. "That new pain medication is a miracle. So, are you going to Jiraiya's tonight?"

"Yeah."

"I'll bring your stuff to school tomorrow. Suigetsu will be up and running by then, you'll be able to talk to him yourself. I want to go back to him," Sasuke said and stepped out of the basement to the other side and climbed the stairs of the entry house. Sasuke smiled, "Naruto, I love you."

"Love you too." There was a noise on the phone. "Hey, Jiraiya! No, I'm not telling you."

"I'll let you get back to your arguing." Sasuke laughed into the phone. Naruto began to apologize, "don't, I think it's hilarious. Mainly because he's going to give you shit about it for a while. Talk to you tomorrow."

"Yep, bye." Naruto hung up the phone in the middle of going back to arguing with Jiraiya. Sasuke shook his head and laughed as he turned around on the stairs and saw his brother behind him. "Itachi? Let me guess, how can you be so stupid? Never do that again, and wait…" Sasuke slapped himself upside the head.

Itachi took the step just before Sasuke's and wrapped his arms around his little brother and became upset. "You could have been hurt or killed! You need to learn how to stay out of dangerous situations! Do you want to end up like mom and dad?"

"_Je… Je suis désole…"_ Itachi held on for another minute before letting go and pulling Sasuke to the bottom. Sasuke looked up at him and saw something coming at him. He was suddenly on the floor. "What the…"

"Hitting's not working obviously." Itachi muttered and began rubbing his fist "From now on when you do something wildly stupid I'm going to punch you in the face so others can help remind you too."

Sasuke wiped a little blood from his nose laughing a bit, "goddamn… you have a nasty right hook."


	19. Problems with Siblings

Naruto had a difficult time going through his classes, the only perk he had was when he got out. Whenever he walked out of a classroom Sasuke would already be there waiting for him. While Sasuke was with him, Naruto was unapproachable by everyone else. However when he got out for lunch, Naruto was alone to walk into the cafeteria without a group to sit with until he saw Suigetsu and Karin huddling in a corner with their trays on the floor.

Both went silent as Naruto walked over and threw himself down on the wall next to them. Suigetsu looked at him, "are you sure you want to be seen with us? Don't you still have a reputation to protect?"

"I'm sure Ino took care of that. I don't really care anyways. What's the point of having a good reputation if it doesn't get you anything?" Naruto said sighing heavily. He took a second to observe the food on his tray and turned to them. "Do you know where Sasuke went? He said he'd see me after my class and wasn't there."

"I don't know. He probably got caught up in something with his brother again. Ever since we got back last night they've been fighting non-stop. Itachi even broke his nose; luckily I'm good with make-up." Karin said and shoved a French fry into her mouth. She looked over at the people staring at them. "Wonder what they're fucking problem is. We sit here every day. We never bother anybody."

"Well, we've adopted a somewhat popular kid into a group of Goths… and he's in normal clothing." Suigetsu noted and uncomfortably sat back against the wall. He looked in pain as he tried to rearrange his back. Karin eventually got fed up with the scene and helped him. "I can do it myself."

"Stop being such a baby." Karin snapped quickly and set his tray on his lap. "The idiot would rather go through the day in pain then letting us help him."

"How is the back?" Naruto asked quietly. Suigetsu just shook his head as a response. "How long is it going to take to heal?"

"Too long…" Suigetsu looked down and set his tray in front of Karin. "Make sure she eats the brownie, she's too skinny." With great pain and a lot of effort Suigetsu stood up and began walking away.

Karin shook her head slowly and pulled her knees into her chest watching him until he was out of sight. Without having to be told she grabbed the brownie from his tray and ate it without the normal complaints. Naruto looked at her, "where's he going?"

"He has to quit swimming. It's a thing he loves, but his back won't be healed to finish the season." Karin lowered her head and crying. "And it's all my fault, if I hadn't worn those stupid heels he could have finished out the season. He shouldn't even be in school, he should be in the hospital but he's too damn stubborn. Now he's going to end up injuring himself…"

Naruto did the only thing he could think of and moved into Suigetsu spot. He put an arm around her and tried to get her to calm down. "He'll be fine. If it was so serious he needed to be hospitalized, Kisame would have done something."

Karin accepted this as true and lifted her head wiping away tears. She went back to starring at the doorway waiting for him to come back. All the while she was shoving her face with French fries. Naruto sighed and removed his arm. "Do you want to know what I think?"

Karin shrugged. "I don't see how it could possibly matter. You don't know any of us that well besides Sasuke."

"He's showing off for you. I may not know any of you personally, but you can tell when a guy's showing off. It's that whole 'I can do it myself' thing." Naruto said from experience and moved back over as Suigetsu came back in sight.

He walked over casually and sat down carefully between them. He looked at his tray and then at Karin. She just stared forward at the ground. Turning to Naruto, Suigetsu pointed at her, "did she eat the brownie?"

Naruto nodded slowly. Suigetsu then ignored him and turned all of his attention on Karin. He hissed in agony and wrapped an arm around her. "Hey, what cha cryin' for? What did I tell you last night? I'm the one in pain. Not you. Quit it.

"Are you hormonal or what? Are we going to have to make a cake run?" Suigetsu asked her. Karin laughed a bit and brushed her tears from her eyes. "So, what are you crying about? Hm?"

"You had to quit swimming, and my stupid heels…" Karin said was stopped when Suigetsu started laughing. "Don't laugh at me! I know how much swimming means to you."

"He put me as assistant coach!" Both stopped and looked at the bleach blond, "I get a jacket and still get to go to all the meets. Plus, now I get paid if it gets okay by the principal. Coach is going to go and tell my horror story to the principal later and see if I can't make faculty." Suigetsu laughed again grabbed one of her French fries and held it in front of her face. "You want to eat the fry…."

Karin took the fry and did eat it but quickly went back to hiding her head behind her knees. "Come on, it's not that bad. I may not get to swim, but I'll get paid so we can go get lots and lots of cake from that diner where Kisame killed that guy."

Naruto watched them for a little while longer. Suigetsu ended up laying his head next to her whispering about how everything would be fine. Naruto heard the cafeteria doors open; he turned to see Sasuke walking in a down state as well.

---------( ---------- )---------

Besides being highly unprecedented and annoying, the message was even more disturbing. It was a short little note basically asking him very politely to stop by the college; he wanted to tell him something. Sasuke sneered, for once he had an excuse to leave school, and for once, he didn't want to.

Sasuke did however leave school and broke his promise to see Naruto after his class. He was going to skip his class and have lunch with him, Suigetsu and Karin. More importantly, Sasuke just wanted to sit with Naruto and let it be known that he belonged to Sasuke now. Now that Sasuke had broken one promise, he was scared he'd break his other. He promised Naruto he would in fact give his speech so they could argue.

This was actually a good thing for the speech; he could have Madara go through and bullshit some more information for him. He was two minutes short. Sasuke stopped the Corvette in front of the science building and shut it off. Getting out he slung his bag over his shoulder and looked up on the stairs to see someone familiar.

Sasuke walked up and stopped in front of him. "Sasori, I had a few questions about what we discussed last night."

"That should probably wait until later. If you're brother finds out…" Sasori said quietly. The teacher stopped, "What are you doing here anyway?"

"Madara called me. He asked me to come here. What's going on?" Sasuke asked. Sasori shrugged. "You want to come with me, he makes me nervous sometimes."

"It's well founded, I assure you." Sasori said turning up the stairs. Sasuke followed closely and walked in right behind him into the building. They were both recognized immediately and approached by Sasori's students. Sasori was a fast enough talker that he managed to get both of them out of the crowd and up to the office door.

Sasori rapped twice and waited until the door was opened by Nagato, he looked at Sasori and opened the door to let him in but stopped. He grunted at Sasuke who didn't take any mind. Sasuke took a step in and Nagato grabbed his shoulder halting him.

Before Sasori could catch either of them Sasuke grabbed Nagato's arm, twisted it, and pinned him to the floor in front of everyone in the office. The end it off Sasuke reinforced his dominance by smashing again into the floor. "If you ever touch me again, I'll rip your arm off."

"Sasuke! Off!" Madara yelled standing up from behind his desk. Sasuke looked up at him and released the researcher slowly. Sasuke walked away and sat on Madara's desk, something no one else would ever do. Sasuke turned his head and looked at Madara, he knew what would give him a good standing. "Sorry, Uncle Madara."

"Uncle Madara?" Hidan yelled out and began laughing. "So that's Itachi's little brother. Man he's fucking vicious! He's alright with me."

"Okay… Anyway, what's up, I have a very important speech to write and give." Sasuke said quickly turning his attention to Madara. Sasuke then stopped and pulled out a notebook. "Oh, actually, could you write my speech, it's over your movement."

"You're doing it over the movement?" Madara asked excitedly. He grabbed the notebook and began reading it, "this is all Itachi's writing. Are you going to do any of the work yourself?"

"Yeah, I'll make it sound good since I know you and Itachi both suck royally at English. Anyway, it has to combat a speech on Quality, and it's going to be hard. The guy is practically in that side of the movement, which is why Itachi wrote most of it." Sasuke said and looked around for an empty chair, he didn't see one. He situated himself better on the desk and watched as Madara went through correcting his brother's notes.

"You can continue your reports, Sasuke's no trouble." Madara said looking up at Nagato quickly. Sasuke turned his head and smiled devilishly at him.

Nagato growled lowly and began talking. "Latest reports show that the serum's…. I'm not comfortable talking with him here. Can't he wait in the hall?"

"Uncle Madara, you need to get researchers with guts. The pathetic weaklings always turn coat at the threat of danger." Sasuke said loudly ignoring Nagato's glare. "I'd hate for you to have to deal with traitors."

"He's got a point, Nagato. Stop being such a weakling." Madara snapped not looking up from Sasuke's notebook. He waited for a second before looking up. "Konan, finish his report for him!"

"Yes, sir. The serum is showing improved signs that aging can be stalled. With observed injections on sections of varying skin we've seen slowing of aging by anywhere from .03% to .06%. The cells are maintaining stability of overall structures but there have been signs of change in several individual cells."

Konan took a file from a desk and pulled out magnified photos. Madara looked them over quickly, "the nerves… damn, how can we stop this mutation?"

"I'm not sure, but it's caused the death of two of our subjects. The other eight have had no adverse reactions. Hoshigaki's working on the autopsies as we speak." Konan took the photos back and regained her normal lurking spot. "The autopsies will provide a larger sample, we'll be able to go through and find out what happened, even if Sasori has to go through the entire genome."

"Don't bother." Madara said scribbling something in between lines. "Get the serum up to 3% before we go fixing ourselves. If we fix ourselves at every stop then Quantity will be ahead by decades. Is this the word I'm looking for?"

Sasuke took the notebook back and looked it over. "Try remnants. And this entire sentence needs to be linked somehow to the previous one. You're grammar is disastrous…" Sasuke said tossing back the notebook. "Have you ever considered taking a writing class?"

"Watch it, I'll mess up the entire speech." Madara threatened lightly. He continued to work and called on Deidara. "How's the press going?"

"Well, we've increased after the fire yesterday. Some have begun to think us a bunch of terrorists. I've got a slip in the school paper for us, it's a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo basically saying we deny all allegations and we wish the best for our opponents. I have had several interesting comments tossed around about how we're becoming the good guys. Someone actually told me they heard that Senju did it as a distracting tactic because their project was failing." Deidara said and flipped his hair over his shoulder.

"So what are we going to do?" Madara asked. Deidara just smiled and leaned against the wall next to Sasori. "Nothing. We're going to do nothing. If we don't retaliate right now and take it that we're remorseful for Quality we're going to come off as compassionate and working for humanity while their attacks repel off us."

"_He_ has a vocabulary." Sasuke commented to Madara quietly. Madara playfully hit him upside the head with the pen. Madara scribbled a last sentence down and handed him the notebook. Sasuke took it and focused in on going about reading it.

Madara conducted the meeting with him still on his desk. "Is there anything else we need to talk about or are we done for today?"

With that the door opened. A familiar voice sounded, "I have the autopsies… oh um…" Kisame paused at the sight of Sasuke on his desk. "Should I come back later?"

"He's fine, he needed me to finish writing the speech Itachi wrote for him." Madara said and Kisame walked in closing the door behind him. "So, how did they go?"

"Fine, all body function was normal, the subjects died from the loss of nerve impulses to vital organs." Kisame said setting two large files on the desk. "I've pulled out samples already and set them in the fridge."

"Good, good." Madara said and looked up at Sasuke who was still going through the paper. "Are you quite comfortable on my desk?"

"Yeah, it's a nice sturdy wood. Won't fall through it." Sasuke finished and shoved his notebook in his bag. "What did you want anyway?"

"Well, we're trying this hands-off approach for Quantity and we need an influence in the high school." Madara said lightly. Sasuke couldn't help but laugh. "What? It'd be a good idea."

"Do you have any idea how hated I am in school? I can go through and personally list fifty people who if you gave them a gun, they'd shoot me first, second and third." Sasuke laughed again and got off his desk. "Well, thanks for making me break a promise to a friend. If you make me break another promise I'm driving my Corvette in doughnut patterns on your lawn. Later."

Sasuke walked over to the door and opened it. He turned to see that Sasori had stood as well. Sasuke lead a small parade of himself, Sasori, Deidara and Kisame out into the lobby. Kisame pushed past everyone and grabbed Sasuke by the arm jerking him, "Itachi is going to kill you. You're luck he's in class right now. If he knew you were at a meeting…"

"Sasuke." The group turned to see Itachi at the base of the stairs watching the scene. Kisame instantly let go of the young Uchiha. Sasuke watched as his brother turned away, disgusted and upset.

"Wait, Itachi!" Sasuke bolted after him and caught him right before the doors. "He called me here; I didn't just show up, alright. I had him finish the speech, I can show you."

"He also nearly broke Nagato's nose," Sasori said walking down to the two of them. "Whether you like it or not, your little brother's apart of this whole thing. Sasuke was in there sabotaging Madara's every statement, he took down Zetsu. We could use him."

Itachi growled something under his breath. Sasuke should have recognized the statement earlier, but he hadn't and Sasori went flying back. The hall went quiet and turned as Itachi stood there one fist extended. He lowered his hand and began walking out grabbing Sasuke's wrist. "I told you to stay out of this, _mon __frère_! It's dangerous!"

No mattered how hard he tried, Itachi refused to listen to him. Sasuke cries that he wasn't doing anything wrong were drowned out by his anger. Itachi yanked Sasuke all the way to his car, "School!" Was Itachi's last word to his brother. He dropped his wrist and walked away silently leaving Sasuke nearly in tears leaning against his Corvette.

Scrambling and distraught Sasuke found his way into his car and drove back to school for the last ten minutes on Naruto's lunch. He walked in saw the scene between Suigetsu trying to get Karin to stop crying; it wasn't helping his condition any. The two were too busy to notice however the blond looked up. Sasuke gave a small smile and sat down next to him taking his bag off. "What's wrong."

"I did something so stupid… Itachi refused to hit me." Sasuke whispered, "it's like the ultimate fuck up, and I did it somewhat with intent. I didn't really mean to…"

Naruto, not caring if there was an audience or even any one who cared, grabbed Sasuke's hand and clutched it with both of his. This gave them both a sort of comfort. "What'd you do?"

"I think I accidentally joined Quantity… Well, the group in Quantity that's working against Quantity. Itachi's face…" Sasuke said remembering the sight as his brother turned away from him. "He wasn't just mad at me, he was disgusted. It was like the sight of me was something so perverse he couldn't stand to look at me.

"You've never had a family, so you don't know what it's like when they're ashamed at you. It's more then just guilt for letting them down, you failed and all you'll ever be is that same failure." Sasuke gripped Naruto's hand harder and a small stream of tears trickled down.

By this time Suigetsu noticed Sasuke and sighed. "Jesus fucking Christ! Is this the weeping corner today? We need some Prozac, lithium, and possible some weed. Somebody call Jugo."

Naruto was the one who slapped Suigetsu upside the head. "Show some compassion. Guilt's not an easy emotion to deal with, especially when you feel you've caused another's pain or betrayed somebody. So unless you've personally got experience in the subject shut up and try to help instead of making the problem worse."

"First off, ow," was Suigetsu response. Most people hit with the palm, Naruto hit with the carpals. Suigetsu carefully rubbed his head, "secondly, I'm trying to get them to laugh."

"It's not helping." Naruto said stiffly. He looked over at Sasuke, "do you need to go home?" Sasuke nodded slowly. "Karin, do you need to go home?"

"No, I'll be fine. Thanks for telling Suigetsu to shut up." She said somewhat cheerily. She tilted her head into his, "he's right, that remark didn't help any. It felt like you just wanted to shut me up or something."

"I didn't mean it to…" Suigetsu began apologizing profusely. Naruto and Sasuke got up and walked away from the cafeteria to the student parking lot. A little ways from the car Sasuke pulled out his keys and clamped them into Naruto's hands. "You sure, the car's…"

"I can't drive like this." Sasuke said and went around getting in the passenger's seat moping. Naruto looked at the keys half-unsure if he should drive the car. He was afraid he would scratch it in someway. Slowly he got in as well and started the car clamping the seatbelt on nervously. Naruto could drive, he had his licenses, he just didn't do it that often, which caused him to worry about wreaking the vehicle.

Naruto pulled the car out of the parking lot and drove as slowly and carefully as he could over to Black Bird and parked it in front of the building. Naruto shut off the car and looked over at Sasuke. The Uchiha sat there quietly for a second before he looked over at Naruto and smiled, "you know, you're skipping."

"Yea, you're a bad influence." Naruto said quickly with a smile on his face and got out shoving the keys away in his pocket. He walked around and opened the door for Sasuke to get out. He took a minute mainly because he was trying to wipe the tears off his face before he went inside.


	20. Oblivious

Itachi was sitting by himself at the opposite end of campus with one of his travel books reading. He was trying to forget his ire at Madara, however the thoughts weren't getting through. He wanted Madara to burn for this; he had told him time and time again to stay away from Sasuke. He was still just a child and didn't need to be involved in illegalities yet. Especially when he was afraid they might end up persecuted.

There were heavy set footsteps walking towards Itachi, it took him a second to look up and see the blue-hair teacher sit down next to him and stare off straight into the sky. "You know…" Itachi began to get up and Kisame grabbed one of his shoulders holding him down. "You've got to listen to somebody, mind as well be me."

"I don't want to listen. Madara's trying to pull him in, and you and Sasori aren't helping. He's trying to drag Sasuke in using underhanded methods." Itachi said closing his book. "He's just a kid…"

"He's not a kid. He's sixteen, he'll be seventeen soon. You've got to stop thinking Sasuke is a sweet innocent five year old. If you haven't noticed, your baby brother's vicious. He manipulates people, especially Madara and you." Itachi stopped. He didn't think he was being taken advantage of. "He's got us trained to stop by every time something big is happening in Quantity and then he goes out and smashes it to smithereens."

Itachi was released but he didn't go anywhere. He stayed put and stared down at the ground. Kisame stood up and flagged someone over. To no surprise it was Sasori and Deidara that showed up a second later. Itachi was surrounded by them, he had no where to go. He sighed and looked up at them, "no, you're not letting my brother in on this."

"He wants information, he told me so." Sasori said and pulled out his cell phone and pressed a few buttons and a voice came on. "_Thursday, 11:46PM. _Sasori, it's Sasuke. Listen, I have some questions about the movement, I need to know what Madara's doing. I'll find you at the college tomorrow. Don't let Itachi know I contacted you."

"Don't tell him anything." Itachi growled lowly. He looked around, "and why are you here?"

"I was going through the files, and I wanted to ask you about some guy named Orochimaru. It said…" Before he could say another word both Kisame and Sasori had snapped his mouth shut. They went quiet for a while before Itachi stood up and removed the hands from Deidara's mouth.

"Do you have the file on you?" Deidara quickly pulled out several. Itachi quickly took them. He grimaced flipping through them and began ripping out pages to shove them in his pocket. "You'll forget what you've read, do you understand? That's what happened when I joined Quantity at Sasuke's age, do you all see my point now?"

Kisame and Sasori looked away guilty. Kisame sighed, "Sorry, I forgot about that. It's just been years and nobody wants to remember it."

"Even if Sasuke knew what happened to you, I don't think it would stop him. The same threat is present but not in the same person. Might I suggest a compromise?" Sasori asked quietly. He pulled out a small piece of paper. "This is everything Sasuke wants to know, allow him to know but not to witness. Stress that if he gets involved when we destroy the movements there is a chance he could be taken in to juvenile detention, or, if they find him old enough, prison."

"I guess." Itachi said and took the list and began reading it over. It was alphabetical and entirely complete. Itachi shoved the list in his other pocket and began walking away.

"Where are you going?" Kisame asked him as he walked away.

"Black Bird, I doubt Sasuke would have actually listened to me and gone to school." Itachi mumbled as he headed towards his car which was all the way on the other side of campus.

"But those things in the reports…" Deidara tried to ask looking at Kisame and Sasori. The two glared at him, "I just want to know if they happened. I don't know how someone could have survived that with any sanity."

"He did because Sasuke needed him too. A ten year old couldn't survive on his own, he still need someone to help him no matter how capable. I'm going to go catch up to him, later." Kisame ran off in long strides after him.

Sasori watched them and then turned to Deidara, "Everything you've read, forget it. However remember this, Madara has a peaked interest in Quantity compared to Orochimaru. He's a fanatic; he'll do anything to achieve immortality. I highly suggest you don't even research him, he has a way of finding out who's been talking about him."

---------( --------- )--------

They were camped out in Naruto's room for the sheer fact that Sasuke didn't feel like being around Darth right now. Exhausted from the depressed spurt, Sasuke soon passed out against Naruto's leg. Naruto had volunteered his laptop to helping Sasuke type the speech, and had also volunteered to type it up.

He finished the paper and only had to go and print it off in the school library. He figured he would let Sasuke sleep. He moved very slowly away but found that Sasuke quickly woke up and grabbed his knee. "Where are you going?"

"You're lunch is almost over…" Naruto said meaning the next class would be starting soon. He set his laptop in his bag and Sasuke sat up stretching. "I can turn your paper in for you, you can go back to sleep."

"I promised we do dueling speeches, and I'm going to keep my promise." Sasuke said turning around to look at him. He smiled and held out his hand, "I'll drive."

"Don't like my driving?" Naruto asked laughing. He handed him the keys and got off the bed.

"You drive too slowly." Sasuke copied his lead and grabbed his bag as they headed out of his room into the darkened hallway. It was then they heard a noise downstairs. Sasuke held up a hand for Naruto to stop and began downstairs silently by himself.

Sasuke slowly crept through the kitchen and heard a small rattling noise from the front rooms; it was then he smelled a small bit of smoke. He moved against the wall, from the opposing room there was a glow coming from the fireplace. It was then Sasuke saw someone moving.

He bolted and grabbed the person by the arm only to have the maneuver reversed. Within a second or two he was pinned to the floor face down. He was released and laughed at, "and you said you could beat me easily, _mon frère_."

"Damn Itachi, that hurt." Sasuke said getting up rubbing the side of his face. Sasuke sat down next to his brother who had started the small fire and was burning some old papers. "What are we burning?"

"Old nightmares." Itachi said quickly trying to dismiss the subject. He reached the list and pulled it out handing it to Sasuke, though once his brother had the letter, Itachi didn't let go. "Know that the next time you want information on something, tell me first, I'm less likely to freak out. Also, if you take this, I'll tell you about the movement, what Madara's been up to, however, you have to keep your mouth shut. Nothing you learn can be repeated, you can't participate in the movement, and no more stunts like last nights."

"It was a rescue mission. I have to get to school; I have a speech to give." Sasuke said and got up taking the paper. He walked out and Itachi heard a whistle and a second set of footsteps. He had to smirk at that, Sasuke wasn't going anywhere without Naruto.

The boys went into the basement talking, and Naruto was confused. "So wait, you're both cool now for some weird reason?"

"I think it was the fact I let him toss me to the ground." Sasuke said twisting the story. The exited the buildings and got into the Corvette. "Brothers are weird like that, if you had an older brother you would understand how confusing they can be. You should somewhat consider yourself lucky."

Naruto shrugged, "yea, but at least you had someone growing up. I was all alone until I was ten. I would have love a confusing older brother, or Hell, even a pet rock."

"Well, you've got us now." Sasuke said finally starting the car. He put it in drive and offered his hand out to Naruto. Smiling the blond place his hand in Sasuke's letting their fingers mesh together. They took off down the road and Sasuke got an idea. "Do you want to go out tonight?"

"Huh? For cake? That's the thing when someone gets upset right. Everyone goes out for cake." Naruto asked missing the point of the question. Sasuke almost had to laugh but he didn't, however it showed. "What?"

"Well, we do go out for cake when someone's depressed, yes. However I meant _out_. Out out." Sasuke said trying to get the message through his head. Naruto turned to him still processing. "Date."

"Oh," Naruto said finally understanding Sasuke. He blushed slightly and squeezed Sasuke's hand tighter. "Okay."

---------( ---------- )---------

Class finished ten minutes early for some reason, Kakashi just said that since they were done they were done and let them leave. He however remained and asked one thing. "Naruto, can you stay after? Jiraiya wanted to catch you before you took off."

"I had, we had plans." Naruto said including Sasuke in his statement. Naruto looked back at Sasuke for support who really had no idea what to say about the issue. He kept looking back and forth between them trying to get the right words out without revealing the nature of the plans.

"He just told me to keep you until he showed; it should be any minute now." Kakashi said and walked around his desk to sit on the front of it. "So, Sasuke, why'd you give your speech?"

"He wanted to do dueling speeches, so we did dueling speeches." Sasuke said nervously, he was thinking about walking out but thought he should stay. Naruto probably could get out of going with Jiraiya for a bit, but he was still uncomfortable and just wanted to move time faster. He was looking for a distraction, any distraction. "Do you have our stories done?"

"Uh, yeah." Kakashi said and grabbed his bag and pulled out a thick green folder. He flipped through and pulled out a thin one and handed it to Naruto telling him how funny it was. Kakashi then pulled out Sasuke nine page story and set it face down. "You're very good with subtleties, I almost didn't realize what it truly was."

Sasuke stopped and flipped it over. There were his descriptors of Naruto circled all over the place through out the story with a small note reading: 'You're very good with hints. So that's why you switched seats, huh?' Sasuke read it and slowly looked up at Kakashi as a threat. "You figured it out?"

"What out? I don't know what you're talking about." Kakashi said and pointed to another note lower on the page. 'Mums the word ;)' was scribbled at the bottom. There was a knock and Jiraiya enter the classroom. "It's about time, I hate detaining students."

"Plural?" Jiraiya looked over to see Sasuke. "I see. So, you two were going to do something?"

"Yeah. So, what's up?" Naruto said pleasantly. "Shouldn't you be in class?"

"Canceled due to the explosion, they're looking for gas leaks around the entire campus." Jiraiya muttered and turned to look at Sasuke. "Hello, I'm Jiraiya."

Sasuke took his hand. "Sasuke Uchiha." Sasuke took his hand back and looked over at Naruto.

Naruto picked up on his sediment, "Listen, we have things to go do, so…"

"I just wanted to check in on you kid. Anyway, I can't keep track of you if you're always out and about. That's a problem with summer coming, so here. It's kind of cheap, and you'll have to help pay…" Jiraiya said and pulled out a silver cell phone. "I already took the number so I can call you, alright kid?"

"Yeah, sweet, thanks!" Naruto said running up and hugging him. He pulled apart from him and opened the phonebook function. Jiraiya was preparing to tell him his cell phone number when Naruto turned to Sasuke. "What's you're number?"

"I can punch it in faster." Sasuke said and stole the phone putting his number in. He then stopped and dialed it to hear his cell phone ring. He didn't answer but saved the number and put the caller as 'blondie.' "Easiest way to store a number."

"Why'd you put it as 'blondie?' I am not a pop group." Naruto argued. They both broke out laughing and Jiraiya tried to get their attention. He failed.

"Madara will go through my phone every now and then." Sasuke said and shoved the phone away. Naruto then shoved the phone away and grabbed his bag. Sasuke nodded towards Jiraiya.

"Oh, was there something else Jiraiya?" Naruto asked. Jiraiya just shook his head to walk away out the door. "Is something wrong?"

"He's not your number one priority anymore. I think it's upsetting him." Sasuke bit his bottom lip and thought for a second. "Why don't you go stay another night with him, we can go out tomorrow."

"You're sure?" Sasuke nodded. Naruto put his bag on and took a step towards Sasuke and smiled warmly. "Bye."

"Bye." They're hands came together again quickly and their lips met. They pulled apart as fast as they came together and Naruto walked out the door. He had caught another teacher and was yakking his head off about teenagers. "Hey, Jiraiya!"

"Huh? What do you want you neglectful… Hey, where's the other kid?" Jiraiya asked looking around. "Did I scare him off? He was already pretty scary…"

"Uh, no. We're going to go ou… hang out tomorrow. You looked kind of lonely so I figured I'd come stay the night with you again." Naruto said trying not to look behind him. He knew for some reason, Sasuke was back there walking away from him when he didn't want to.

In fact Sasuke was somewhat upset and just wanted to rush him. They're were both in a semi-crowded hallway, they'd be noticed. He walked out of school unnoticed and was half way to his Corvette when he heard a familiar laugh. It was the people who normally would beat him up, however, Sasuke had had enough already going through a rollercoaster of emotions and turned to them, "Fuck off, I'm not in the mood today."

The kids stopped and looked at him for a second before one lurched at him. Sasuke dodged and grabbed his forearm. A loud snapping sound could be heard with a earsplitting wail. Sasuke looked down at the boy with his broken arm and shrugged, "I was serious, I'm not in the mood. I have things to do so scram."

His orders were followed that time. The boys grabbed their fallen friend and ran away. Sasuke wasn't sure if they'd ever come after him again, he didn't care really. He walked casually over and got in his car setting the bag in the passenger's seat. Having time Sasuke dug in his pocket and pulled out the small piece of paper with notes on it. They were from Sasori.

He spent the next five minutes reading a twenty year history on what had been going on. For the first time, Sasuke felt afraid of Madara. He knew Madara could kill but experimentation on humans causing death and things beyond imagining were terrible. Worse, they kidnapped college students and elderly people to do it to. He was feeling disgusted when he heard and knock on the window and turned to see Karin and Suigetsu. Sasuke opened the door slightly, "Need a ride?"

"Sure, where's your little boy toy at?" Suigetsu asked walking around to the other side letting Karin in first. "I thought for sure you two would be out of here by now."

"Naruto was… it's not kidnapping if it's your guardian. He came and got him." Sasuke said starting the car, "I get him back tomorrow."

"You don't sound too happy." Karin said and took a minute to herself. "Wait, are you two…"

"Oh my God woman you are the most uh… I'm so shocked I'm at a loss of words." Suigetsu said and quickly slapped himself upside the head. "How could you not know?"

"Well, Sasuke did tell me… And I…" Karin couldn't find a good reason for not paying attention. "It's not really any of my business is it. It's none of yours either lobster."

"She's got a point, now stop talking about me like I'm not here." Sasuke butted in and drove the car out of the lot. He sighed and stopped at an intersection, "I think I need cake, do you guys need cake?"

"More then you could ever know." Karin said and with some relief. "You know, if we keep up this cake habit with the way things are going, we're all going to get fat."

"I think you could do with some more weight, being too skinny leads to health problems." Suigetsu said and looked over at a drug store, "man, I could use some vicidan, or just something to knock me out cold until tomorrow."

They all stayed quiet with the reminder of what Suigetsu's back looked like. They all filed out at the diner as normal but Suigetsu stopped and noticed something, "Hey, Sasuke, what's wrong with Karin?"

"What?" Sasuke asked looking at him. Karin threw her hands on her hips, "There is nothing wrong with me."

"No, seriously, something's off… You got shorter!" Suigetsu noticed then looked down at her feet, "You're not wearing heels… Hey, Sasuke she's wearing my converses. I spent twenty minutes looking for those this morning!"

"Oh please, you haven't worn these in months, plus you're the only one with spare shoes and I am not wearing a ripped out old pair of tennis shoes." She stated pointing down at Suigetsu shoes. Suigetsu raised a finger to her face, "What? Come on, say it already."

He just stood there, finger in place. He struggled to find words and just walked past her giving up. Suigetsu walked past Sasuke just muttering something that made the Uchiha laugh. As he entered the diner Karin walked over to Sasuke, "What'd he say?"

"He said 'she really is oblivious.'"


	21. Kakashi is a freaking ninja

**Hi All, **

**This is just anote letting you all know I will be switching days I update from Tuesday to Monday. This is so I can better keep up with my classes, which go from 10AM - 8 PM all day long Tuesday. Enjoy the chapter!**

**Aki

* * *

**

Naruto and Jiraiya held a communal silence on the way home. There was a large amount of unease with the situation. This was more so with Naruto who, for the second night, would be on his own when anything could easily happen. Praying for the uneventful, Naruto followed Jiraiya into the small book filled home to ditch his bag on the couch. Before he could wander off to his room he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder.

"Where do you think you're going? I want to talk some." Jiraiya said and practically force-sat Naruto on the couch. Jiraiya then planted himself in his recliner and looked to the blond haired boy. "So, I know you think this is annoying, but we just need to make sure you're safe."

"Don't worry, I am safe. I'm never alone; they keep me well fed even if I don't want to eat." Naruto said and tried to come up with more. He realized he couldn't without giving away some Black Bird information. "I'm completely safe."

"I wasn't talking about that." Jiraiya said and sat foreword in his chair. Nervously brushed his hands through his hair trying to collect his words. Jiraiya straighten out and looked at Naruto. "On the phone last night… You have a girlfriend don't you?"

"Uh, no. Oh, this is because of the 'I love you.' It's just a friend." Naruto said trying to blow it off as nothing as fast as possible. "I don't have a girlfriend. It's…. It's a friend, who I'm just really close with but… And, um, they have issues with people…"

"You're lying. You blushed. Now, hey!" Jiraiya called as Naruto covered his ears and began walking away. Jiraiya got up and followed him down the hall. "I just want to stress the importance…"

"I am _not_ having this conversation with you!" Naruto yelled and quickly retreated in his room. He shut and locked the door to hear Jiraiya try to continue his point. Being a bit faster thinking then Jiraiya, who had a key to his door; Naruto opened the window and jumped out. He figured it would be a minute or two before Jiraiya found out so he walked around the house and snuck inside the kitchen.

He could hear Jiraiya yelling about things he could care less to hear down the hall. Stopping himself from laughing aloud, Naruto opened the fridge and grabbed a soda pop. He casually sat down at the kitchen table and picked up a copy of the student press released two days ago. Naruto was surprised Madara hadn't found out yet that Sasuke was working against him, there was a picture of Sasuke and the group of genetics students being interrogated by the cops. It had made front page as 'Police hassle students about man-eater.'

Naruto finally heard the door to his room open followed by some swearing and stomping down the hall. A minute later Jiraiya, grumpy from his defeat, waltzed into the kitchen and grabbed a beer from the fridge muttering: "That kid's beginning to be a nuisance."

"Stop complaining, you only have to foster him, I have to be him." Naruto said smartly and waited for Jiraiya to notice. He did notice a minute later and quickly cornered Naruto who kept reading the article. "This paper really has a problem, they should get our editor up there."

"It's college kids who are angry their parents are paying their tuitions." Jiraiya said snatching the paper away. "Now, I'm serious about this. Have you ever gone through a medical text book?"

"No. I'm going into sports, remember?" Naruto waited a second before he looked up at Jiraiya. "Why?"

"There are some scary ass things in there. Things no man should ever have to suffer from. Terrible, terrible things can get caught from women, you need to be careful." Jiraiya said trying to spook him a bit.

Naruto stopped. "Don't you write about free sex? You're being hypocritical."

"You get what I mean! What's with you anyway?" Jiraiya asked and sat down across from him opening the beer. "All of a sudden up and moving out, being more of a smart ass then usual, and not to mention your so called 'friends.' What's been going on, Naruto?"

Naruto sighed and set his pop down. "Well, Tuesday, I guess I just kind of started talking to him. After a while, we just came to understand a little bit about each other and it's made me re-evaluate some things. I kind of feel accepted by them, if you understand that."

"What?" Jiraiya asked not understanding. "What do you mean accept? You didn't switch sides did you?"

Naruto shook his head and tried to think of a better way of explaining it. "There are actually four groups involved in the Quality versus Quantity fight. There's Quality: everything's on the surface, Tsunade doesn't do anything underhanded. Quantity: almost everything underhanded. There is a small group inside Quantity that's works against Quantity but they can't really do anything. Then there's a completely separate group that has recently started doing things since the inside group can't."

"And where do you fall?" Jiraiya asked. Naruto hadn't really thought about it. He probably didn't count as any of them completely, but he trusted in what Sasuke did. Naruto held up the number four. "So that's why you were at the fire?"

"We were told about ten minutes before, I wanted to get everyone out." Naruto looked at the can of soda pop and thought carefully about his options. He licked his lips nervously and sighed heavily trying to tell himself he could talk with Jiraiya. "For once, can you not repeat my every word to Tsunade?"

"Depends on what those words are, you should know that." Jiraiya looked around the table and grabbed the poker deck and held it up to him. Getting approval Jiraiya pulled out the cards and began shuffling. "You know, Naruto, it doesn't matter what side you're on to me. I know you'll always do what's right."

"Thanks." Naruto said and watched as Jiraiya tossed five cards his way. "So… I think I'm going to tell Tsunade I quit the movement. It's just not where my heart is anymore. I want everyone to have comfortable lives, but I guess not everyone's going to agree to that."

"It's a point." Jiraiya said and they looked at there cards. They each threw both their hands down simultaneously. "Bad hands, life deals 'um."

"Yeah. So, Sasuke… I like him." Naruto said blatantly hoping that was all he would have to say to tell Jiraiya the truth. Naruto imagined telling someone what he had come to define as himself to be hard, but it just slipped out so simply, he would run with it. As Naruto received a new hand of cards he waited to hear something from Jiraiya.

"He's a good friend huh? He seemed confident when I met him. Though, he reminded me of the time I met Madara. He looks like a much younger version." Jiraiya said and tossed two cards in. He took his new hand and read through his cards quickly. "I've heard things about him, and this group called Black Bird. What do you know about that?"

"It's just a bunch of friends, but we've come to make up the fourth group. Most of the time we actually spend eating cake if you'd believe me. But I meant…" Naruto stopped, he wasn't sure if he wanted to continue. He could stop right now and just keep everything to himself. Naruto could just hide away; he could be complete without anyone telling him.

He wasn't a quiet person; he didn't like the idea of having some huge secret. Anyway, it was Jiraiya. Jiraiya was his current legal guardian. He defiantly wanted to explain to him. "I…"

The doorbell rang before he could get out another word. Jiriaya folded quickly and deserted the table to answer the front door. Naruto could hear Jiraiya loudly inviting whoever it was inside and began going on about his manuscripts. A second later the author walked in practically yelling ecstatically at Kakashi. "Hey Naruto, tell him how good the new book is!"

"It sucks, I wouldn't recommend reading it. It's based off of pedophilia." Naruto said blandly and took a sip of his soft drink. He waited for Jiriaya's reaction, "What?"

"It is not, you spoiled little runt!" Jiriaya somehow had managed to get him in a headlock giving him a noogie. "It's based off a love that's not supposed to be!"

"Called pedophilia." Naruto said and Jiriaya gave up. He leaned his arms on the back of Naruto head and sighed looking over at Kakashi. "How can you put up with that many teenagers in one day?"

"I give them grades, they behave for me." Kakashi said lightly and looked down at Naruto, "I wanted to ask you some things. You want to go for a walk?"

"Am I in trouble?" Naruto asked remembering that he had skipped with Sasuke. He was thankful however when Kakashi began shaking his head. Naruto pried himself from under Jiriaya and rubbed his head. He sighed quickly and flipped over his hand. "Three aces."

"You cheated." Jiriaya said grumpily. "Hey, Kakashi, lose him down a dirt road or something. He cheated."

"You're only upset because the one bet you wanted to win you didn't." Naruto said and began walking out of the small home with his teacher behind him. He felt somewhat awkward; he was torn away from Jiriaya right when he was going to tell him that he was in love with Sasuke. Now he'd have to keep it in until he got rid of Kakashi. "So, what's up?"

"You're story…" Kakashi said as they turned off the driveway to the sidewalk, "How much did Sasuke help with it? There's no use lying, I can tell he helped with some of it. The grammar and syntax were impressive, and a few words I know are out of your normal vocabulary were in there. Also, it wasn't your normal story."

"Yeah, he burned that page…" Naruto said and scratched his head nervously. "Well, he kind of helped me develop the plot." Kakashi looked at him, "So he told me the plot, but I wrote all of it, he just went through and edited for me. I swear."

"I believe you." Kakashi said simply and pointed at street for them to head down. They turned and Naruto posed the same question he did back at Jiriaya's house. Kakashi laughed, "I already told you, you're not in trouble. It's alright to get a little help, everybody needs it now and then. So, out of personal curiosity, why are you hanging around Sasuke now?"

"Well, um… Let me guess there's no use in lying because you know something from Jiraiya already?" Naruto watched as his teacher nodded slowly. Naruto sighed slowly. "Tuesday, after class, Sasuke kidnapped me and dragged me over to a place to meet with some people. We ended up getting locked up in a cadaver lab for twenty minutes to avoid someone, and I actually got time to talk with Sasuke on the way there and in the lab.

"I used to just think he was scary and mean, he's not at all. He's just kind of different." Naruto said. He couldn't hear it, but his voice seemed to get sweeter as he spoke those words. Naruto felt himself blush and smiled as he began to think inside his head. He stayed in a swirl of warm emotions until he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Huh?"

"You drifted off, Naruto." Kakashi patted his shoulder. "I think I've figure you two out finally. I take it Sasuke came on to you first, didn't he?"

"What? How'd you figure that out?" Naruto asked freaking a bit. He thought he was good at hiding things. Naruto broke from Kakashi grip and began pacing. "OhmygodwhatamIgonnado? WhatamIgonnado? Sasuke's going to freak!"

"Sasuke knows I know." Naruto stopped. Kakashi walked up to him and patted his head. "Sasuke's story was about his love of you, he didn't expect me to find out, but I did. It's why if you have a secret, you don't hide it in a hidden place, you hide it in the open.

"I won't tell, I promise, I was just wondering if you knew, but obviously…" Kakashi let the sentence drag into silence, Naruto knew the end words. "I was just wondering if you were going to follow Sasuke down or bring him up. Your two are polar opposites and there's only a few months of school left, I'd hate to see you copy him too much, though the missing school's not that bad."

"Aren't teacher's supposed to say something against that?" Naruto asked finding the statement out of place. Kakashi just shrugged. "I only missed due to some problems, hopefully they've passed for now."

"I just wanted to make sure everything was alright, with the season starting in two weeks and all." Kakashi said looking up towards the sky.

"Wait… This is about baseball? You don't care about my individual well-being?" Naruto shout at him. "Why couldn't you have just asked me if I was still going up for baseball? You didn't need to drag me away from a meaningful conversation with my guardian."

"Calm down, Naruto. It's because I care about you're well-being I dragged you away. Meaningful conversation eh? Let me guess, you thought telling Jiriaya was a good idea?" Naruto nodded. Kakashi sighed, "I wouldn't if I were you. I'd tell him when it's only absolutely necessary. Even some of the closest people to you can be the cruelest. Trust me, I had to watch someone go through shame and guilt that wasn't deserved, he ended up taking his life because even his closest friends though he was stupid for what he did when it was ethically correct. Just be careful, alright?"

"Never thought about that, O-kay." Naruto muttered somewhat brought down by Kakashi's speech. Kakashi began aimlessly walking away. "Hey! Who were you talking about?"

"Hm? My father." Kakashi said quietly stopping, "If you ever need to talk, I'm around. Tell Sasuke that goes for him too."

Naruto nodded and looked to the ground quickly sighing. Raising his head he saw his teacher had vanished. "How does he do that?"

---------( ---------- )---------

"Well, what did he mean by it? I mean, why would you say that about someone unless… He's hiding something isn't he?" Karin asked adjusting her glasses. She had been freaking out for the past half an hour as they had cake, but since Suigetsu was in the bathroom she was free to annoy Sasuke about the issue. Leaning in she whispered: "What's he hiding?"

Sasuke decided to amuse himself. He leaned in and whispered back. "If you can't figure it out on your own, relinquish the thought of ever finding out."

"You're going to uphold that stupid best friends bond aren't you? Curse you, curse you both." Karin whispered back. She threw herself against the seat and folded her arms angrily. It was then Suigetsu casually walked over trying to allude that he was fine even though the pain was worsening. Suigetsu sat down next to Karin not knowing what had happened. "Curse you."

"What?" Suigetsu asked and turned to Sasuke, "Did I do something wrong or did she start her cycle?"

"You don't say something like that out loud!" Karin said angrily and smacked him upset the head making sure to be careful. She went back to having her arms crossed and just stared at her plate.

Suigetsu couldn't help it, he turned to Sasuke smiling. "Did you hear that, curse me? I already have to put up with her how much worse could it get?" Suigetsu then grabbed a brownie off Karin's plate and began eating it.

"Suigetsu, I swear you are the most hypocritical person I have ever met." Sasuke couldn't help but laugh slightly. He then stopped and sighed. Sasuke pulled out his phone and checked it he stared at the screen for a second before something popped up reading 'blondie.' "I'm fucking amazing. I'll be outside."

Sasuke got up and quickly pressed his phone. "Hey…"

"Why didn't you tell me Kakashi knew?" Naruto asked somewhat blasé.

Sasuke got outside and leaned against the building trying to think. "What, no he knew that I liked you. He didn't know anything beyond that. I know Hinata didn't tell him."

"He talked to me for like five minutes and told me he knew you like me and wanted to see if I knew then drifted to the fact we were going out."

"He's nosy." Sasuke said stiffly and looked around him. There were no people on the street. "Don't worry Naruto, Kakashi won't tell. I think he understands that we'll retaliate if he does. Anyway, I don't think there's any harm from him as long as he doesn't tell Jiraiya."

"He told me _not_ to tell Jiraiya, actually. He did say if either of us needed to talk, he'd be around. He disappeared on the street… Just vanished."

"The freshmen think he jumps out the window at the end of class. Just get over his ninja-ing. Anyway, Suigetsu and Karin are being horribly entertaining. Why don't we go out for breakfast tomorrow?"

"Okay, so what…"

"Holy shit, Kakashi?" Sasuke said quickly looking over as his teacher was standing next to him. Naruto over the phone could be heard yelling 'I told you!' "I'm gonna let you go, bye."

"You shouldn't swear." Kakashi said shoving his hands in his pockets. They exchanged a glare for a while before Kakashi began walking by him. "I stopped using the window when I broke my foot last year, I'm just really quick."

"Right…" Sasuke said shoving his phone away wishing he had told Naruto to hang on instead of hanging up. Re-entering the diner Sasuke sat down across from Karin and Sugietsu. "Kakashi used to jump out the window…"

"That's just a Freshman rumor." Karin said.

Sasuke shook his head, "He just told me he stopped when he broke his foot last year. It does explain why he refused to tell anyone why he had his foot wrapped up."

"He jumped out the window, that's… that's intense." Suigetsu said somewhat amazed. He began laughing and stole another brownie from Karin. He took a bite and kept talking, "That guy should be principle. I'd want a principle that can catch me in the act of spray painting the school monument."

"So that's what the paint was for? What'd you do with the can?" Karin asked. "It has everyone's fingerprints on it."

"In my room, as a trophy." He said happily and looked towards Sasuke, "So, what next, oh leader?"

"I don't know, I wanted to hear more of the argument. Karin's all upset because we have _secrets_ due to our '_best friend bond_." Sasuke said stressing certain parts so Suigetsu would pick up on what he was trying to accomplish.

Suigetsu nodded and smiled. "I'm sorry to say all our secrets are too… dangerous to be out. As a girl you should understand."

"All I want to know is what you meant when you told Sasuke that I was oblivious! Is it that hard?" Karin yelled getting riled. The boys were accomplishing what they set out to do. "Anyway, what do you mean secrets?"

"Well, usually a secret is something you keep hidden, like an escaped prisoner or a venereal disease." Sasuke said smartly. "Or perhaps you were indicating the plural?"

"You guys are hiding all these secrets from me, I want in right now!" Karin demanding slamming her fist on the table. She breathed hard for a minute and looked at both of them.

Both jumped at the opportunity. "I still eat raw fish." "I hate stupid people." "I really want to go over and stab Kisame." "I have this bump on my head…" "I can do screamo." "I can do a cop roll out of a third story window." "Nice!" "I know." "I can crack every bone in my hand."

"ENOUGH!" Karin looked at both of them for a second before she slammed her head on the table. "What's gotten in to you two today?"

"Sugar." Suigetsu quickly answered. Karin groaned in response and slammed her head down again. Suigetsu sighed feeling badly. He softly petted Karin's head, "Don't make a scene, we're just playing with you a bit."

"You want to know a real secret?" Sasuke said leaning in. Karin raised her head up enough to show her glasses. "Suigetsu has a crush on someone."

"No way!" Karin sat up and looked at Suigetsu who was busy giving Sasuke a dirty glare. "Who is it? Do I know them? Are they prettier then me?"

"Uh… I'm not telling. You do know them. And… same level. Is that a safe answer?" Suigetsu asked addressing Sasuke. Sasuke nodded thinking it would do.

"Who is it? Seriously?" Karin asked toning down. Suigetsu just removed his hand and began eating off his own plate for a change. Sasuke smiled to himself and mouth 'oblivious, indeed.'


	22. Breakfast

Jiraiya was awake on Saturday at seven past eight getting ready for work. He had a class at nine about literary criticisms and was fixing his tie in the bathroom mirror. There was a rapid knock at the door and Jiriaya stopped. It was rare to get visitors, especially in the morning. Grumbling to himself a bit he left the bathroom to open the door. He was somewhat surprised to find a pretty young red head standing there smiling. "Hi, is Naruto awake?"

"Naruto, uh, no. You can go and wake him up though; his room's the first on the left." Jiriaya said pointing to the hall staring at her in a stupor. Karin walked in and passed him quickly with new heels on. "So, are you Naruto's friend?"

"Yea, one of them, well, excuse me." Karin said getting away from him as quickly as possible and quickly entered Naruto's room closing the door behind her to find the blond sprawled between the sheets. Without warning or real need she slapped his back quickly. "Up and at 'um."

Naruto looked up at her in mild shock and yawned. Naruto instinctively grabbed a shirt from the floor and put it on. "Where's Sasuke at?"

"A couple blocks away waiting to take you to breakfast. Hurry up." She walked across the floor, her heels clicking loudly. She opened the door and he followed her out to see Jiriaya looking at the both of them. Karin simply smiled and moved on.

"I'll be back later, I'm going out to breakfast." Naruto walked by Jiriaya as well following Karin out closely and shutting the door behind him. "You know, you are possibly the best cover ever. Jiraiya was trying to get out who I said 'I love you' to."

"Sasuke was somewhat thinking along the same lines. Look what he bought me, dance heels, they're reinforced so the heel won't snap as easy." Karin said staring down at the black footwear. "I still feel horrible in heels though…"

Naruto nodded, "It'll take a while until you feel better about the accident. At least you have Suigetsu."

"What does that mean?" Karin asked and she turned away quickly. Naruto waited a minute and she stopped on the side walk. She nervously twitched her hand thinking. "Suigetsu has his crush on me, doesn't he?"

Naruto shrugged, he didn't want to let anything out though he knew she had finally gotten it. Naruto just kept walking, the sight of the Corvette parked at the corner welcome. Karin just stood there, "Tell Sasuke I'm going to go out for a bit."

Naruto heard the heels run away at a quick pace as he headed for the car. To his surprise, Sasuke wasn't in his normal dark clothes. He sat in the front seat, window down reading a travel pamphlet for Australia. Naruto knelt down next to the window and leaned in seeing what was on the paper. Sasuke noticed and jolted a bit. "Hey…"

"Is Madara going to take you to Australia now?" Naruto asked. What Naruto really wanted to ask is 'are you going to leave me for an extended period?'

"No, Itachi's going to do is paper. I'm trying to help him find places to visit and document." Sasuke said and nudged his head towards the passenger side down. Naruto went around and got in letting them leave the block. "So, where'd Karin get to?"

"I said something that kick-started her head so she went off." Naruto left out the finding out who had the crush on her. "Where are we going to?"

"Some place with a booth so we can talk freely." Sasuke said and started the car. That place happened to be a nice restaurant on the edge of town. It was empty and the few occupants that were there were business folk or elderly couples. Easily enough Sasuke just asked for a small secluded booth and a waitress gave them one at the back of the restaurant with a curtain that could be pulled shut.

What Naruto thought as invaded space Sasuke thought as cozy as he cornered Naruto on one side of the booth and opened the menu for both of them to read. For a minute Naruto gazed somewhat angrily at a picture on the breakfast menu. The brunette looked at his companion, "Why do you keep staring at the eggs benedict like that?"

"Isn't Benedict that one guy who betrayed America during the Revolutionary war, shouldn't we be naming the eggs after Lincoln or something?" Naruto asked thinking he was posing a viable question. Sasuke laughed slightly and grabbed his hand smiling. "Was that a stupid question?"

"No, just silly. It's just a style of eggs, and no, they weren't named after Benedict." Sasuke said and sighed heavily. He turned to Naruto, "The movements, Madara's using real humans as guinea pigs. He's worse then I thought, plus I have this list from Sasori. Madara's not only trying to become immortal, he's killed hundreds of people in the process through genetic mutations. We have to find a way to take him down."

"But…" Naruto said thinking about Sasuke. "What would happen to you?"

"I'm sixteen, I'm a legal runaway. I'll be fine, plus I'm set to inherit everything of Madara's, the ugly salmon color mansion, the millions of dollars, and all his cats, if he ever gets put away I get it. Anyway, you're thinking selfishly," Naruto turned away at that word. Sasuke smiled, "I didn't say it was a bad train of thought. Anyway, if Madara does go to jail, we can quit school and spend all day playing with oodles of cats, though you should probably keep going and graduate if we break up."

"You're planning on breaking up with me?" Naruto asked somewhat shocked.

"NO! No, Hell no. Never!" Sasuke tried to quickly remedy the situation. "No, I don't want to break up with you. It was an abstract thought, a teleological notion about the future if something were to happen and you wouldn't be supported. Just forget I brought it up."

"You know, technically, we never starting going out. You never asked me." Naruto said, a sly grin crept onto his face. Sasuke picked up the hint but waited on his original idea. He reached his other hand across and held it to the far side of Naruto's face and whispered in his ear. He pulled back a bit and kissed him on the cheek. The statement caused Naruto to laugh, "Oh so you don't know if you like me enough yet."

Naruto casually shoved him a bit. Sasuke laughed warmly and slipped out of his hand. "I'll be back, order the American traitor for me."

Naruto watched as Sasuke disappeared from view. What he couldn't see was Sasuke was digging in his pocket to pull out his phone. He disappeared into the bathroom answering it. "What?"

"You act like I'm ruing your date or something." Suigetsu said loudly. Sasuke quickly swore at him and Suigetsu laughed. "So, Karin came back and won't even make eye contact with me. What the Hell did you tell her?"

"Nothing. Naruto did say her brain jogged while he was talking to her and she took off." Sasuke said and immediately knew it was a mistake.

"Put him on the phone. Now." Suigetsu rarely got demanding with Sasuke, but when he did, Sasuke followed it knowing what a loose cannon he could be. He told him to wait a minute and walked back out the table. The waitress was leaving as he slide in and handed the phone over. Naruto answered. "What the fuck did you say to Karin? She refuses to look at me."

"She was talking about her heels and how she was uncomfortable in them because of what happened. I told her it'd take a while to get over the accident and… and at least she still had you. She kind of figured you liked her and just took off abruptly. Are you going to kill me?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes at the blond's question and took the phone. "Listen, Naruto just saved you some trouble, why don't you force her to listen like normal or give her space to contemplate?... Suigetsu?"

"She left, mentioned something about shoes and just took off. She doesn't like me back does she?" Suigetsu let out a long line of curse words and sighed. "I'm going to go stab my wall, later."

"Make sure the wall is the only thing you stab. Bye." Sasuke hung up the phone and immediately laid his head on Naruto's shoulders. "I hope they can still live near each other after this, we can't kick either out of Black Bird for fighting. I'm also hoping he doesn't stab through his wall. It'd rip up my posters."

"Well, she didn't seem mad at it, just like she had an idea. I thought when I told her he was showing off for her she would pick up the right gist, guess not." Naruto said and laid his head on top of Sasuke's. "So, Jiriaya, he thought that since I wouldn't tell him who I was talking to Thursday night, that I had a girlfriend."

"Most parents would, I guess." Sasuke said and flipped open the curtain to check for the waitress. "So what did he do?"

"Try to give me the talk, but what he did was yell about how diseased girls can be and how horrible things can be caught from them. And then you sent Karin in this morning, so now he thinks I'm dating her."

"Well you're not." Sasuke checked once more quickly. He smiled and pulled Naruto in towards him. Their lips met quickly, hard and warm. They pulled apart smiling, "so since you may complain about it, do you want to go out?"

"I don't know if I like you that much." Naruto teased back repeating Sasuke's own words. Naruto stuck his tongue out at him and turned away for a second to smile to himself.

Sasuke decided to take the opportunity to learn his limits. Without hesitation he grabbed Naruto thigh and turned his head so they were facing. Without trying hard Sasuke leaned on him a bit. "I'd rethink that answer. It's not a very good one unless you're a parrot."

"I like parrots." Naruto was somewhat hesitant as Sasuke kept leaning in until he was pinned against the wall. Sasuke gently kissed him at the base of his neck and then slid his hand up his leg to squeezed his thigh putting too much pressure on the blond. It was there Naruto caved, that was Sasuke's limit. "Fine, I do want to go out with you. Are you happy now, Sasuke?"

"No, there could have been some worship in there. You know you let me go that far in a booth, I'm surprised." Sasuke smiled, kissed him again on the neck and sat back letting Naruto resume his normal position. He checked the curtain and saw their food coming. He held the curtain open as an aid to the waitress and waited for her to set the food down. "Thank you."

The girl left and the Sasuke began eating, Naruto just sat there. He stared blankly at his pancakes slightly biting on his lower lip. Sasuke inquired and Naruto gave him a funny look. "You had to do that in public."

Sasuke understood the meaning immediately. He smiled somewhat flattered and grabbed Naruto's hand, "Think of something else to take your mind off it. Anything will help, just separate yourself from it."

"So, what do you want to do about the movement?" Naruto asked quickly.

"Let's give them a run for their money, see how good they are at covering their tracks. I happen to have some sticky fingers when necessary." Sasuke pulled a small key ring out and held up a bright green key. "It's a replica of Madara's key to his office; he won't be in tomorrow morning. He attends the church at the opposite end of town. Want to have some fun raiding it?"

"I think we should mess with Quality too though, otherwise it's going to look uneven. Of course, what can we do when their building's already been destroyed?" Naruto said. Sasuke nodded and stole a pancake off his plate shoving it in his mouth. "Hey, eat off your own plate."

"Or you could share and we can get you more pancakes. I'll share my eggs." Sasuke offered holding up his plate to him. Naruto shook it away and began eating his pancakes. "So, are we all better now?"

"Yeah, just don't do that again in public." Naruto said quietly. Sasuke smiled, he should have offered to take him into the bathroom. He had to bet that Naruto wouldn't say no to him.

Sasuke began to think dirty thoughts and couldn't help but ask him one of the questions that came to his mind. "You don't scream in bed, do you?"

"What?" Naruto asked somewhat shocked by his statement. "How can you ask something like that?"

"Just wondering since our floor has Suigetsu and my brother on it. I don't want to explain it to them, though they could probably guess. So, are you a screamer?" Sasuke asked, his casual demeanor ensuing thinking nothing of the question posed. "I used to be, I learned how to choke my scream though."

"I don't know." Naruto said with great unease.

"Don't be nervous with me." Sasuke let go of his hand and wrapped it around Naruto's shoulders looking at him. "I love you; I'm not going to do anything against you. Don't be nervous, okay?"

"I can't talk about things like that, it's embarrassing. I can't even think about things like that, it's like Jiraiya's got my head censored or something." Naruto tried to explain. He failed however and sighed.

Sasuke just gripped him tighter and kissed him on the forehead. "I'll have to rewire it later then. So, are you coming home tonight?"

"Yea, I was just going to go and tell everyone I'm quitting the movement. I'll be home after that." Naruto grabbed his hand interlocking their fingers and moved it onto them onto his lap. "I wonder how they're going to take it. Tsunade put all her hope in me, she even gave me her grandfather's necklace."

"Tell her the truth. I know that both sides are keeping research to a minimum; Quality is just releasing their findings. Tell her you joined to make a difference, and that difference isn't there anymore. Keep it quick and painless, I'd give the necklace back too."

"I guess." There was a clacking outside and both turned to see the waitress pop her head in. "Can I get more pancakes?" She nodded and left again.

"You're so expensive, you're lucky Madara spoils me." Sasuke picked up his fork and kept eating. "You know, I kind of want to run up to everyone and just yell 'shut the fuck up and get over yourself.' They all have to think they're right."

"Maybe you should tell them that." Naruto suggested. "Have you ever considered just going up to Madara and flipping him off?"

"Better, I've done that once. He thought he did something wrong and gave me a few thousand bucks to cool me off." Sasuke bragged quickly. "I should do it again soon and see what happens."

"You and your rich uncle…"

---------( --------- )---------

Naruto was grabbing his stomach the entire time back from the restaurant. He groaned as they pulled up in front of Jiriaya's house, but smiled goofily. "I ate too much."

"It happens." Sasuke said and rubbed his hand with his thumb. Sasuke smiled and turned off the car. He looked over at the driveway and saw it was empty. Sasuke without delay pulled his hand over to one side and smiled. Naruto noticed it. Like clockwork the two can together and kissed quickly. "You taste like pancakes."

"No, it's the syrup." Naruto corrected him.

They laughed quickly smiling at each other. They dropped hands and Sasuke shut the car off. "Come on, I'll walked you up."

Sasuke got out of the car and went around helping Naruto out of the car. On the way up they joined hands and stood quietly as Naruto unlocked the door. Naruto walked in slowly, Sasuke followed cautiously hoping his present wasn't felt until he wanted it to be. Naruto never forgot him though and closed the door after he stepped in.

Naruto immediately laid his head under Sasuke's and gripped him tightly. Sasuke wrapped his arms around him petting his back lightly. "Sasuke, remind me never to eat pancakes again… ever."

"You'll be eating them tomorrow, you've just eaten too much right now. Come on, you should go lay down." Sasuke said and led him still half curled to his chest down to the frog infested room. Naruto fell over on the bed and sighed heavily then watched as Sasuke crawled up next to him. "You know, we're not in public."

"Sas…" Naruto felt their lips mesh together. It was the first time they had actually looked into each other's eyes at close range. It was that gaze from his boyfriend that erased any other thoughts in Naruto's head besides closing the curtain more, which he easily accomplished.

Putting his arm down Sasuke grabbed it and pinned it to the bed. They pulled apart for a minute. "Naruto, open your mouth."

Without delay he did and Sasuke stuck his tongue in Naruto's mouth. Sasuke partially rolled on top and laid his hand on Naruto's stomach and slowly slid it down. Sasuke pressed their mouths violently together and his hand shot under the rim of Naruto's jeans. Naruto lurched somewhat but was stuck in place. Sasuke just held him until his move was made and removed his hand.

"I better go save Suigetsu's sanity." Sasuke muttered as he moved their lips apart. Sasuke lowered his mouth to Naruto's ear. "When you go to deal with that, go slowly and think of me."

"You can't just do that and leave." Naruto muttered looking at him.

Sasuke smiled, "if you want me to stay I will, but I don't know when your guardian's going to be home. This is part of your rewiring. Just think of me and go slowly." Sasuke said and kissed him delicately. He grabbed Naruto's hand and led it down, "I love you."

"I love you too, but that's mean." Naruto muttered, Sasuke couldn't help it. Since his hand was already down there he gave one good stroke, sending Naruto into a gasp. "No… that was mean."

"I'll play later, I have to go make sure the other Black Birds are taken care of. If you need a ride home later, call me. And remind me to get some syrup, that was possibly the most delicious Frenching ever." Sasuke chuckled as he rolled out of the bed and left the room shutting the door. He really wanted to stay and watch, joining in was even an option, but he was right. He had no clue when Jiraiya would be getting home.


	23. Curse you phones, curse you

Sasuke was able to track down Karin fairly easily, she only goes three places: school, home and the mall. Of course wandering through 100 stores wasn't easy, but Sasuke found her quickly enough in a shoe store trying on tennis shoes of all things. From the look of the boxes she had piled up next to her, Karin had been trying them on for some time. "Can't find any you like?"

Sasuke sat down and immediately put his arm around her looking at the shoes. She shrugged, "Why didn't you tell me I was the person he had a crush on? That kind of throws a wrench in everything, though… I guess it explains a lot. Not letting me go out, the fire, especially the picking on."

"No he does that for fun," Sasuke quickly corrected. "If you're going to get shoes, you should stop looking at these, you're not athletic like that, get some converses or something."

"They don't have any." She said. Karin waved a hand displaying all the running shoes.

"Uh, you're in an old hag store. Come on, let's go get you actual shoes. Then we have to get you home because Suigetsu's worried sick that you hate him."

"I don't hate him. It's just, surprising. I thought he was going to grow up to be exactly like Kisame, alone but evilly happy." She said quietly as she put her heels back on. They walked out and over to a skate shop and Sasuke showed her where the shoes were. "So, you're good with this stuff. What should I do?"

"Depends," Sasuke said lightly handing her a box. "Do you love him?"

"I don't know, I'm still trying to get over the fact he has a heart." She said quietly, "It's just making me feel terrible. He's done all those things for me… and…"

"If he would have wanted something in return, he would have asked for it. Why don't you just worry about that later, alright?" Sasuke said and patted her head. He then sat down next to her and pulled another box of the shelf for himself. "I love being a spoiled rich kid."

"I love being friends with a spoiled rich kid. You're going to pay for these, right?" Karin smiled a bit laughing. She held up the price tag, "It's a little out of budget."

"Yeah, I got it covered."

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Naruto thought it was amazing to be that out of breath. He clutched his pillow staring at the wall; he was exhausted but didn't want to fall asleep. He didn't know why it felt so good, but he bet it was somehow Sasuke's doing. Lazily he sat up and got off the bed wandering to the shower. He felt filthy, but this time it was okay, feeling dirty like this felt perfectly okay.

He walked straight into the shower and turned on the water. Naruto jumped back out of the cold forgetting the hot water took a minute. He was too tired to remember those small things about Jiriaya's house which had lost its feeling of home. He stepped back in when the water was warm and let in run over him for a few minutes until the door bell went off. He swore and got out quickly racing for his pants.

Needless to say running and pulling on pants wasn't the best idea in the world, but it worked temporarily. He answered the door and saw Shikamaru there staring at him. "Are you alright? You look like you're about to pass out, Naruto."

"Uh, yea, come in. I was just in the shower." He said walking in to the living room and falling down on the couch.

"I can tell; you left water everywhere." He said and took a seat across from Naruto in Jiraiya's chair. "Usually, I have to wake you up at this hour, huh, anyway.... I just came to warn you, you might want to get out of the house."

"What?" Naruto asked sitting forward. "What do you mean?"

"Sakura's on some rampage, something about a picture Ino sent her of you from this morning. I don't know what it is, but it's bad. Come on, I'll kidnap you away to my house."

"A picture from this morning? Do you know anything about it?" Naruto asked standing up. He excused himself and began down the hall to get himself a shirt.

"Not really, after she sent it to Sakura, she called me; I'm the closest person to you geographically. She wouldn't tell me what the picture was of, but said it involved a car in front of your house." Shikamaru said loudly.

"Aw, fuck!" Was the only reply. Naruto grabbed his backpack as well and ran back out. "We have to get out of here, now."

"What was the picture of?" Shikamaru asked as he followed Naruto out of the house. Naruto kept ahead of him for a while until Shikamaru decided to inquire more. "I can help, but what was the picture of?"

Naruto sighed and looked at him. Trust was a thing he didn't have to worry about with Shikamaru so he relaxed some. "I'm pretty sure it was a picture of me and my boyfriend."

Shikamaru almost stopped but continued on trying to think about things. "Well, that's um... Wow. This is really bothersome, isn't it?"

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

It was earlier that morning Ino was headed into her work, she had decided to stop by and see Naruto since he was breaking apart from them. She thought it would be good just to say hi and see how things were going. What she didn't expect as she rounded the corner was to see a silver Corvette parked outside his house with him talking with Sasuke.

Ino couldn't help it, she pulled out her phone. Sakura had asked everyone to keep an eye on Naruto, and she would. She turned it to camera phone mode and held it up to take a picture only to see them do something she would have never thought imaginable. She took the picture and quickly began retreating around the corner dialing Sakura.

"Hey, no listen, can you wake up?"

"Wake up? Why? It's Saturday." Sakura grumbled over the phone.

"Well, I was on my way to work and I was going to stop to see Naruto and oh my God…" Ino said stopping her words to look behind her. She was still alone. "Naruto was in a car with Sasuke…"

"It's not my first choice of friends…"

"They were kissing."

"Did he reject you again?" Sakura asked blatantly.

"NO! Would you listen to me! I'm telling the truth." Ino protested. "I know I have had a habit of saying bad things when people reject me but I didn't ask him! I was just going to say hi, they were in the car and making out."

There was a loud groan. "Are you sure you didn't just get rejected again, you used some story like that when Shikamaru rejected you. All I'm saying is that unless you have proof…" Sakura drifted off. "I'm going to go back to sleep, alright?"

"I have a picture. I'm sending it to you. Next time believe me or I'm going to stop playing little informant for you." Ino pressed the red hang up button hard as if it was the phone's fault she wasn't listening. Ino quickly sent the photo and shoved her phone away.

She kept walking reaching College Row quickly and began heading down to her parent's flower shop. Her phone began ringing. She pulled it out and read 'Sakura' off the screen. "Believe me now?"

"Are they still there?!?" Sakura yelled through the phone.

"Hey, calm down Xena, what exactly are you going to do? From what I hear, Sasuke dropped some kid in seconds yesterday without breaking a sweat. Wrestling captain or not, I don't think you've got a chance of fighting him for Naruto."

The phone went quiet for a second and Ino sighed. "I'm on College Row anyway. I have to work, you'll have to go see for yourself, alright?"

"Yeah… Bye. I'm sorry I didn't believe you." The phone line went dead. Being worried, Ino quickly dialed Shikamaru and stood nervously outside the shop. "Hey, I need you to wake up."

"You're troublesome…"

"I need you to go get Naruto and get him out of his house before Sakura gets there. I did something really stupid and Sakura's turned into a barbarian."

"And this is different from normal?" Shikamaru asked. He heard a little groan over the phone. "Stupid as in?"

"I sent a photo of Naruto in a car to her, which I shouldn't have, and now he's in trouble and I have to work. Just please go get him." Ino asked desperately.

"Alright, I'm going but you owe me one."

"Thanks!" Ino hung up the phone and began opening the shop.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Sakura sat up in bed and opened the photo when she got it. Her eyes lowered and she just stared at it. "Is this why you left us Naruto? Is this why you left me?"

Sakura curled her legs up to her chest and began crying softly as she set the phone down. She was confused, she could have sworn Naruto had loved her. She was sure of it. "This is all my fault…"

Sasuke had taken him away from her. Because of him, Naruto had abandoned his friends. He had abandoned her. "He left us…"

Sakura was almost sure there was something wrong in Naruto's head. "This is wrong… I've got to get him back." Sakura quickly got out of bed and turned on Metallica to All Nightmare Long. She was going to hunt Naruto down and make him admit to her that he was wrong for doing this. And if she got the chance, she'd try her hand at beating the shit out of or possibly killing Sasuke.

She added her wrestling gloves to her normal skirt and tank top and began out the door cell phone in hand hitting redial. 'I will make him pay for this…'

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

"Will Suigetsu really eat this?" Karin asked as they walked out of the fast food restaurant with four large bags. Two of them were just for Suigetsu with sides in the others. "That's a lot of food. I know he eats a lot but I'm talking about rupturing the stomach."

"It's comfort food, he'll eat it all, some of mine and some of yours. It's what he does best after all. We should get him a job as a busboy. He'd love it." Sasuke commented opening the door for Karin who had all the bags. "One thing, if you don't talk about it he won't. I think that would be best for right now."

"Best for right now, what about tonight, tomorrow?" She asked as Sasuke closed the door shrugging. "I guess your idea is to take care of it as it comes along."

"It's a good idea." Sasuke said getting in and starting the car. "And don't do your usual 'peace offering thing' it annoys him."

"Why doesn't he like it, it stops the arguing."

"It does, but he wants you to argue, it lets him get forceful with you. If you haven't figured out, he like to feel like he's in charge since he really doesn't have control over anything."

They took off towards Black Bird, Karin was still confused. "Why didn't he pick someone submissive then?"

"Would you rather say you're in charge of little Karin or a shark?" Karin chose the latter, it sounded more impressive. "It's not only more impressive, it's more fun and more dangerous. It's like Naruto, he may not be aggressive, but it is dangerous. If Madara found out I'd be killed probably, plus he wriggles a lot."

"Oh my god… You had to let that out didn't you?" Karin laughed and began eating the fries out of the bag. Sasuke looked over quickly and notice. "What?"

"He's going to get pissed at you…. So you're going to pick a fight with him?"

"Yeah, now about this wriggling." Karin asked and Sasuke quickly cranked the radio. "You're not being any fun, Sasuke!"

"I know." Sasuke yelled back and they parked the car in back of the buildings. They went in just in time to catch Suigetsu as he was about to leave. Suigetsu was on the top stair of the entrance house with Karin looking at him carrying food and a bag. "Hungry?"

"Um…" Suigetsu said and just stared at her with what seemed like guilt ridden eyes. "I guess."

"Too bad I ate your food." Karin snapped quickly and shoved the bags on him. "Come on lobster."

Sasuke walked in to see Suigetsu with everything. "Women… Come on." He said and turned Suigetsu around.

"She… she doesn't hate me?" Suigetsu asked quietly. He sighed, which was unlike him and softly headed down the stairs. "I thought she liked me, I seriously did."

"Right now she's trying to deal with the fact you can love. She doesn't know if she likes you or not, but there is a chance for you." Sasuke said hopeful and patted his head.

"Ah. Don't press the issue?" He asked as they reached the door at the bottom.

Sasuke shrugged. "Pretend like the issue doesn't exist right now." He opened the door for Suigetsu and they filed in to find Karin taking over an entire couch to herself. She was finishing tying her shoes when she looked up sticking her tongue out at them.

Suigetsu stuck his tongue out in reply and took over his couch going through the food as dictated by Sasuke. When finished Suigetsu picked up the nearly empty bag of fries and looked at Karin. "You ate all of my fries!"

"Don't you usually yell at me to eat all of your fries? I saved you some time, you should be thanking me." Karin snapped quickly taking her burger. Strongly she took a bite of her food and began to ignore him.

"… One of these days, woman." Suigetsu threatening pointing a finger at her.

"I'm shaking in my new Converse."

Suigetsu jaw dropped. He turned to Sasuke and stood up upset at the scene. "You bought her new Converse! That's unfair."

"You already have Converse, Suigetsu. Don't be greedy, anyway, that's only her second pair of shoes, total. Don't you have like five different colored Converses?" Sasuke asked and took a seat next to him dragging him back down. "You have enough shoes."

"That's beside the point." He grumbled and quickly shoved the last of the fries in his mouth. Suigetsu began pouting, "Sasuke, can we kick her out yet?"

"I think he's upset he didn't get a new plaything." Karin said and mocked him by crossing her legs towards him. "Karin got something and Lobster didn't. Ouch."

Suigetsu immediately smiled with a plan and stood up. Without missing a beat he move over to Karin's couch, sat down and looked at her. "Do you know what gerbils taste like? The hair tastes like you expect it to but the muscle is a little bit fattier than chicken."

"Are you threatening little Karin?" She asked reeling back a bit. The bleach blonde just smiled. "You better not be threatening to kill my gerbil."

"No pet," Suigetsu smiled and casually put his arm around her and pulled her in close so he could whisper. "I'm just letting you know so you can help me plan something to cook her in."

"You..!"

"Enough!" Sasuke roared quickly. He sighed and stared at them, "Suigetsu, get back over here and sit down. And no more threatening her gerbil, got it?"

"Alright, but you're taking away all my leverage in my arguments." Suigetsu said and sat down staring at Karin. She still looked somewhat out of it. "Karin, sorry about the gerbil thing."

"Whatever." She said and turned away from them on the couch to keep eating. Suigetsu just turned to Sasuke and shrugged not sure what to do. Sasuke just shook his head.

It was then Sasuke phone went off and they turned to him silently. Sasuke pulled it out and okayed them to talk. "Hey Naruto."

Sasuke listened closely for a second before he closed his eyes looking down. He took a deep breath and sighed, "I guess your right, we won't have to use booths anymore. Yeah, I'm okay. If you want picked up call me alright, bye."

Sasuke hung the phone up. "FUCK!" He screamed loudly and threw the phone on the ground. Sasuke immediately draped his head in his hands and began breathing heavily. Karin dropped her burger and crawled in next to Sasuke leaning on him. He looked at her taking notice, "It got out. Just like I didn't want it to. Somehow a picture of me and Naruto kissing got around."

"Do you know who? I have my knife in my pocket." Suigetsu offered quickly standing up, "I'll go and kill them right now, just say the word."

"No, it's alright Suigetsu. Just sit down and eat, Naruto told me not to worry about it so I'm not." Sasuke said and shrugged Karin off gently to stand up. He walked over to a bag of Jugo's thing and ruffled through finding his cigarettes and his lighter.

"You gave those to Jugo saying you quit." Karin said slowly and sighed. "What will Naruto think?"

"He'll understand, plus, he's not really against it. I'm more against smoking then he is." Sasuke said and left slamming the metal door behind him.

"I hope he's alright." Karin without thinking grabbed some of Suigetsu's food and ate it. He noticed it and grabbed the onion rings to hold the bag out to her. She looked at it, "Oh, sorry."

"It's okay; I ate while you guys were out. Plus I don't like onion rings." Suigetsu lied and held the bag out farther. Karin took it and set them on the table in the center of the room. "You know, I meant it when I said was sorry about the gerbil comments. If it helps, I was bull shitting. I never ate a gerbil."

"Then why did you kept going on about it?" Karin asked him like it was common sense. "That makes you look like an asshole."

Suigetsu just shrugged. They heard Sasuke's phone ring and looked down to see the word 'Itachi' on it. Karin picked it up and answered it. "Hello. Um, Sasuke's having a bad time right now, can he call you back later. Oh, he threw it on the ground, yea, when he calms down I'll have him call you. Buh-bye."

"You should have said Sasuke gave you his phone in case of emergencies, Itachi's going to be over here in a few minutes now because it sounds like baby brother's in distress." Suigetsu sighed and kept eating. "I'll bet you five dollars Itachi doesn't punch him this time."

"Doesn't? You're on." Karin said and set Sasuke's phone down. "He started smoking again, Itachi's sure to punch him."


	24. Unspeakable

"So um… eh?" Shikamaru said at a complete loss of words as they were approaching his house. The entire walk had been him trying to get out a sentient sentence that wasn't offensive or questioning Naruto's character. "Relationships are way out of my expertise, you'd need Ino for that and she's working right now."

"It's not the relationship, it's the people against it." Naruto said and waited on the side walk for Shikamaru to open the door. They walked in and were nodded at by Shikaku Nara. "Hey Mr. Nara."

"Hey Dad, finally awake?" Shikamaru asked as his dad fumbled with the TV remote. Shikaku nodded groggily.

"It's your mother's thing about a teenager being awake before me." He growled and began flipping through the channels trying to find the news. "You should really sleep in more, you know that? So what's up?"

"Rescue mission." Shikamaru said quickly. Shikaku looked at him and both boys quickly said "women."

"I understand that." He tried to say quietly.

"And what's that mean, Shikaku?" Came loudly from the kitchen.

"Nothing dear, it's just teenaged girls, they're temperamental." He quickly mouth 'and bitchy.' Shikamaru nodded towards the stairs and they began up to Shikamaru's room. "If you ever need parents, feel free to borrow mine."

"I've got Jiraiya and Tsundae. It's well taken care of." Naruto said as the entered a nearly empty room besides a corner with way too much electronic equipment. It was almost habitual as they sat in front of the TV and picked up the controllers for the game system. "I haven't played video games in days…"

"Are you on a fast or something?" Shikamaru asked. Naruto shook his head. He scanned carefully over the menu and picked two-player mode. "So, it's Sasuke I take it? You're boyfriend is Sasuke?"

"Yeah. You don't sound too surprised." Naruto noticed of Shikamaru. "Of course, you're usually the first to figure everything out. You're also not that shocked."

"Well, I don't really care. It's none of my business what you do in your spare time, unless you mess with my life in some fashion. So," Shikamaru sighed and quickly shot a sniper on the screen. "Anything else you've been hiding?"

"I got a tattoo. You have to get it for some symbolization of the group. I joined the Black Birds, so, it's a bird." Naruto said quickly and tried to think of other things. "Um, I have a knife now, but it's not sharpened so it can only stab, somewhat."

"A pacifist with a knife, that's kind of funny. Let me guess there are other ironies as well?"

"You know how Madara's super rich and lives in a huge mansion with everything anyone could ever want? Sasuke and the rest of us live in an abandoned building as squatters and I'm pretty sure my laptop is the most expensive thing there." Shikamaru actually paused the game and looked at Naruto. "And it's on Raven street, with all the hookers and drug users."

"I don't have a comeback for that. Living like that… Especially there of all places. I've heard stories about dead prostitutes from that street. That's a pretty bad neighborhood, I can see why you would have a knife."

"Well, they keep everyone away, it's safe really. I don't know what I'm going to do though. Jiraiya thought I had a girlfriend so he started giving me the 'talk' and it didn't help that Sasuke sent Karin to pick me up this morning."

"Huh, how troublesome." Shikamaru's comment was over looked by a large yell coming from the bottom of the stairs. They waited a minute and Chouji appeared in the door way and glared at Naruto. "What is it, Chouji? I'm playing group councilor."

"Um, can I talk to you in the hall?" Chouji said nervously.

"Listen, if it's about me, just say it." Naruto said flat out. Chouji started denying quickly. "No, its okay, I'm headstrong, just say it."

"You're gay…" Chouji said slowly. Naruto and Shikamaru shrugged and resumed playing. "You already knew?"

"Ino sent me to protect him from Sakura. How'd you find out?" Shikamaru asked quickly and Chouji pulled out a phone and brought up a small photo with a note attached. It was sent from Sakura to everyone under her friends list. "You take a bad picture, Naruto."

"So we're back to picking on the gay kid when you have a crush on a teacher." Naruto shot back. Naruto took the phone and looked at the picture, "I do look bad… You should see the picture Itachi got of Sasuke and I during a nap. Hinata said it was cute."

"Wait, so this involves both of them?" Chouji asked. He quickly glared at Naruto. "Is Madara in this too?"

Shikamaru quickly ripped the phone out of Naruto's hand and tossed it back to Chouji. "I'll talk to you later, alright Chouji?"

"Sure, later." Chouji said and stalked off slowly. Shikamaru sighed, "Sorry about that. You'd think he of all people wouldn't be homophobic when he gets teased about weight."

"It's alright. I'll have to get used to it I guess. School's going to be tough on Monday though. I'm just worried about what Sakura's going to do since I have her in almost all my classes."

"We'll find a way to keep her in line. I would worry to much about that. What are you going to do about everything else? As it stands, I'll probably be the only one to come around you publicly anymore, possibly Ino. That's nearly all your friends."

"I have Sasuke, Karin and Suigetsu at school, then who is ever at the house when I get there." Naruto mentioned realizing it was true. "When they tattooed me, Sasuke even mentioned that I wouldn't have to worry about who my friends were because I'd be living with them. They're not as bad as everyone makes them out to be."

"I agree. I'm one of the few who actually talks to Sasuke in class. It seems if one of us doesn't get something the other does, it's a good system. Helps me keep my grades up." Shikamaru said and went quiet for a while focusing on the game. "I don't know anyone else in the group, but I figure since Sasuke's in charge it can't be that bad."

"He helped me get my first A on a fiction story. Kakashi, he knows, he figured it out because of something Sasuke wrote on me. But he actually dragged me out yesterday and asked me how much of it Sasuke wrote. I guess when Sasuke edited it he put in some big words."

"Those big words, I hated spelling due to them. Sniper or your right." Shikamaru said quickly.

"Not anymore, he's on your left." Naruto tried to catch the sniper but missed. While they watched carefully a small round object came from behind a wall and landed in front of Shikamaru's character. There was a bright blast of light and Shikamaru's half of the screen went black. "Then Kakashi started going on about me still going out for baseball."

"Well, you're a pretty good player. One of the fastest runners." Shikamaru set his remote down watching Naruto play for a bit. "So, what are you going to do about the movement?"

"I'm going to quit it." Naruto said while his character was hit in the face with a rifle round. "And, now I'm dead. That sniper's good."

"Senju's going to be pissed if you quit. Especially since I heard they were planning a rally next week." Shikamaru said and pulled up the level details before regenerating. "Go around, there's a guy back there, stab him then move to the sniper and shoot him. I'll keep him distracted."

---------( ---------- )---------

Sakura slowly approached the house which was completely quiet. She knocked twice and waited a minute before opening the door and walking into the dust filled living room. She didn't hear anything.

Without hesitation she began walking down the hall and grabbed his doorknob. Entering with force she saw what was remaining of Naruto's old life. Some spots on the wall were darker because the posters protecting the paint were gone. A lot of his things were gone. The dresser was raided of clothes. She looked up on the shelf and saw what he had left behind: all the pictures of them.

She sighed and brushed aside a small amount of tears from her face. She grabbed one of the pictures and wiped the rest off the shelf letting the glass shatter as it hit the floor. Sakura quickly walked out of the room shutting the door.

She pulled her phone out and dialed Ino who answered softly. "Who did you tell and where did they put Naruto?"

"Sakura, you need to get over this. Naruto has a right to date whom he pleases, even if it is a rather awkward, scary and malicious guy who were pretty sure is under the watch of the devil himself." Ino said and contemplated, "I have my break in twenty minutes, why don't you come down and we'll talk?"

"Why don't you just tell me who has him? I want to talk to him myself." Sakura said stepping outside the house and gently closing the door. She sat down on the front step and wrapped her free arm around her legs. "I won't get any answers playing phone tag with you."

"I'm not telling. Listen, just cool off for the weekend and talk to him on Monday, alright? Just drop this until then. You don't need to be going psycho on him. He'll be pretty worked over by the time he gets to school."

"Right." Sakura quickly ended the call and dialed Sai. "Hey, it's Sakura. Where did you say you saw them the other day? There?" Sakura asked surprised, "Alright, thanks. Ino already gave me that speech; you know I take things into my own hands."

She hung up and stood up shoving the phone away. Checking her gloves Sakura sighed deeply. "So Raven Street then. Someplace to hang around."

---------( ---------- )---------

Sasuke sighed as he saw his brother's car drive up in front of the house and stop slowly. Itachi got out and immediately walked over placing a hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong? I called, Karin said you threw your phone down and were having a bad day."

"It got out, just like it shouldn't have. Someone caught a picture of Naruto and I." Sasuke said and sat down on the stoop. He put his cigarette back in his mouth and took a drag. "It's nothing big, defiantly nothing to jump your day off track about. _Je vais bein, mon __frère_."

"You're lying." Itachi said sitting down next to him. "You forget I helped raise you. So, how angry are you?"

"I kind of just want to beat the shit out of something." Sasuke muttered. He smiled and dropped his cigarette extinguishing it on the ground with his foot. "When was the last time we got in a good fight?"

Itachi sighed and stood up cracking his knuckles. "I hope you know, you still can't beat me. State champion anything or not."

"I think your information is outdated. It comes with being old, you know?" Sasuke stood up and went opposite of his brother. Sasuke lurched foreword hoping to catch him off guard in banter mode but found he missed.

Without much effort Itachi grabbed Sasuke around the shoulders and held him still rubbing his knuckles as hard as he could across Sasuke's skull. "Silly little brother. You may be stronger by a lot, but muscle weighs you down for dodging. Now…"

"That really hurts!" Sasuke cried trying to get him to stop.

"Maybe instead of fighting this time…" Itachi sighed calmly.

"Quit it already!" Sasuke yelled tearing at Itachi's arm trying to break free. "I'll bite you."

"…You can laugh it off."

"You're a pain in the ass!" Sasuke yelled tilting his head up enough to look at his captor. Itachi just simple smiled down still giving him a noogie. "This is going to be bad!"

"What's the worst that can happen?"

"Well…" Sasuke stopped and thought, "Since I took care of those bullies, not much. Would you quit already, bastard!"

"I like watching you squirm in annoyance." Itachi said quitting and patted him on the head. "See, now aren't you glad I stopped by?"

"No, now my head hurts." Sasuke got out of his brother's grip scowling for a second. He took a deep breath and laughed hugging his brother. "I hate you, and yet I love you."

"Yea, I mess with people's heads. It's what I do best. Now, I'll be back later, try to have a better rest of the day." Itachi said and got back into his car. He waved at his little brother and took off in the beaten down car. Sasuke sighed and headed back inside to find Suigetsu and Karin gazing at him. "What?"

"Did he punch you?" Karin asked quickly and Sasuke shook his head. Karin without hesitation handed five dollars over to Suigetsu. "Damn it."

"You're betting on whether or not I get punched?" Sasuke asked them seriously. Both looked at each other then nodded.

"Nothing personal, it's just a bet, plus I wanted to prove that not every time Itachi sees you there's not a physical confrontation that results in you bleeding in the face." Suigetsu said and pulled the bill taught several times in from of Karin. "I'm going to use this to go buy more fries and eat them in front of you."

"That's a dumb plan." Karin said getting up and bending down to stare him in the face, "I already ate all your fires. I'm not hungry anymore. You need a better plan." Karin trotted off upstairs quickly.

"She's good…" Suigetsu snarled. In his agitation he just grabbed some more food and kept eating. "Why are women so damn difficult?"

"I don't know, this is why I date guys. Guys are usually pretty simple creatures, I'll I had to do with Naruto was flirt a bit and force him to make out. However, don't try that with Karin, she'll kill you." Sasuke pointed out. He scratched his head and sat down on the couch next to him. "So, Itachi told me to laugh it off."

"And?"

"Best damn advice all day. He's got a good point, no matter what happens, I can drop anyone." Sasuke got up off the couch. He grabbed his bag and smiled. "I'm going to go draw outside, come get me if Karin tries to kill you so I can watch."

"Gee thanks." Suigetsu muttered and heard the steel door slam. Suigetsu was out of things to do. He set the food aside and pulled out a rather thin knife with some wire attached to it. Wrapping the wire around his knuckles he flipped the blade open and pitched the weapon at the wall landing it point blank in the middle of rule three, his fish. Suigetsu gave a hard tug and the knife fell back so he could reel it in.

In the quiet he heard foot steps coming down. Suigetsu pulled the knife in quickly and watched as Karin came down with a plastic bubble with little Karin. Karin quickly smiled and held the bubble out. "Can you baby sit her, I have to change her bedding."

"Baby sit? A gerbil? Can't you just let it roam free, I mean, you ignore it enough. You're gone constantly, just drop it on the floor and let her have a heyday." Suigetsu said and threw the knife again.

"Even if I do leave her alone sometimes, I still care for her. If you were nice, you would have just said 'okay' or something." Karin said and set the ball down on the floor. "Now shut up and watch little Karin already."

Karin stormed off and Suigetsu reeled in the knife to tuck it away. He looked down at the small creature and picked up the ball looking at it. "I think this is a guinea pig ball… You're way too tiny for this thing. Little Karin, can you keep a secret, I did actually eat a gerbil, I just lied to make your mother feel better. Don't worry. You're too tiny to eat and if I remember right, it wasn't too tasty."

He sat it in his lap and just stared at it. Little Karin seemed to feel the same uncomforting tension towards Suigetsu and stared right back. "If you die, or pee in my lap causing me to kill you, she will not only kill me, she won't like me, so you better be good. You can't understand a word I'm saying but even if you don't I will kill you if you pee on me."

Suigetsu sighed and set the ball back down on the floor to let the gerbil sit there. The gerbil, still a baby, could rock the ball back and forth a bit. After a minute or so he got bored and grabbed the ball and went upstairs to the kitchen and grabbed some food out of the fridge throwing the five he got from Karin in the jar. He sat himself and the gerbil on the floor next to the sink. He shoved the lunchable down his throat giving the lettuce off the sandwich to the creature. "We need to get you some growth tonic, you're so tiny. I'm surprised Karin hasn't mistaken you for her glasses yet.

Suigetsu shoved the food in his mouth and watch little Karin chew away at the leaf. Karin came down stairs and looked at them, "did you eat all you food already?"

"Well, no, but this is cold and I wanted something to spend your five dollars on. You should have gotten her a hamster ball." Suigetsu said and snickered finishing off the meal.

Karin bent down and tried to pick up the ball but little Karin went off. She stepped back and everything went quiet. "You do it, you pick her up." Karin said pointing a finger and Suigetsu looked at her awkwardly and grabbed the ball with no side effects. Karin too a step forward and she went off again. "You turned my gerbil against me."

"And all I did was threaten to kill it and give it food. Damn, your gerbil sure is demanding." Suigetsu said standing up, "I'll carry her up for you."

Karin smiled slightly and thanked him. They headed up the stair and into her room where a large part of her desk had been taken over by a cage with tunnels. With little effort Suigetsu coaxed little Karin back into her home. "Thanks, but curse you for making her hate me."

"I didn't make her hate me, maybe she just wanted me because I gave her lettuce. Go buy some lettuce for her. So, what's so unspeakable." Karin stopped for a minute and watched him confused. "I'm in your room."

"Oh yea…" Karin looked around her room for inspiration. In the end she couldn't come up with anything unspeakable. "You'll get off this time for helping me with little Karin, now get out."

"That was entirely spoken. You suck at threats." Suigetsu said laughing at her. The two began lightly arguing, and that was enough to completely block the murmur of yelling coming from the street.


	25. Quitting

"You don't have to come with me; she'll beat the shit out of me in front of anyone." Naruto said referencing Tsunade's fighting attitude. After beating the sniper, Shikamaru volunteered to go with Naruto to tell Tsunade he was quitting the movement. He was sure the response would include a physical attack. "Anyways, are you sure you're not just going with me in case Sakura shows up out of the blue."

"Well, that did play a deciding factor, but I'm here if you need help arguing. I am one of the best strategists in the town. Anyway, it'll hard to get a word in edge wise once you close your mouth. She'll be yelling, after all." Shikamaru pointed out as they walked on campus. "So, where's she at since her office is blown to bits?"

"Jiraiya's office so they can tag team issues, like yelling at me about the same thing." Naruto said sarcastically, the sentence caused Shikamaru to laugh a bit. Naruto stopped and breathed heavily slightly turning around. "Maybe I should just call her?"

"And maybe she won't hunt you down and scream at you until her head explodes." Shikamaru said. He grabbed his arm and shoved him forward.

"You know this is a bad idea. Maybe I'll just disappear and hope she gets the hint." Naruto said and tried to escape.

"And maybe they won't send the police on you and maybe your entire life won't end up on the front of every city newspaper. Just go." Shikamaru said still pushing him forward. "This is something you said you were going to do, you've got to follow through with it."

"I know." Naruto said. He sighed and looked up to the medical building that way laying burned next to them. They weren't the only on lookers, there were plenty of students who stopped and stared. "It looks like it collapsed more after they extinguished it."

"More?" Shikamaru asked looking over at the few walls standing. He looked around and lowered his voice. "Don't tell me you know something about that too."

"Sasuke, Karin, Suigetsu and I were the ones who went in right before the explosion and got everyone out. I don't really want to talk about it." Naruto said lowly and began to walk from the area as fast as he could.

"Touchy subject…" Shikamaru told himself and caught up to Naruto. They walked silently for a second before Shikamaru had a thought. "So, if you are still supporting Tsunade, but quitting the movement, doesn't that make you a hypocrite?"

Naruto shrugged and smiled stupidly. "It's not the first time. I tell Jiriaya all the time I'm not hungry then go pig out on Ramen. Well… let's go get this over with." Naruto said looking up at the building before them.

Naruto raced up the steps past the students and maneuvered past the crowds to the office and knocked twice. He heard both Jiraiya and Tsunade respond and opened the door leading Shikamaru in. "Jiriaya, Tsunade, I have something to say."

"Well out with it! I have to get back to these new building plans." Tsunade said folding her arms impatiently.

Naruto looked at Shikamaru who nodded supportively. Naruto reached both hands behind his neck and undid the necklace to set it on the desk. "I'm quitting the movement."

"What?" Tsunade asked taken a back. She was sitting at Jiriaya's desk, he had been booted to a side chair with Shizune next to him. The three stared at Naruto in somewhat disbelief at his statement. Naruto took a deep, reaffirming breath knowing Shikamaru was next to him if he couldn't argue it. Tsunade's teeth gritted. "What did you just say?"zune next to him. . you." know what?"' just by being here.

"I'm quitting the movement. I've thought it over carefully and I've seen what's happened, and I don't want to be a part of a war." Naruto said. He stood there waiting for her reply but Tsunade just dropped her hand lightly on the table and looked away.

"That's a poetic way of putting it Naruto." Jiriaya muttered putting his thoughts in. He sat forword. "I'm not inclined to argue the fact. It's getting aggressive."

"It's because they're getting nervous." Tsunade grumbled. "We shouldn't be running with our tails between our legs! We should be out there stronger then ever."

"In what building?" Naruto asked quickly. Tsunade shut her mouth. "It's because they're getting annoyed. They're tired of having competition that can do things they can't."

"Do things they can't? Like what, Naruto?" Shizune asked quietly. "If you know things about them…"

"Naruto's quit already. He doesn't have to tell you anything and compromise his current relationships with his friends. He's already in a bad position as it is and there's a pretty good chance it could become worse just by being here." Shikamaru broke in quickly. Shizune nodded in understanding. "I think we should go."

"You're probably right…" Naruto agreed.

"Be quite Shikamaru, this is between me and Naruto!" Tsunade snapped.

"Where's you're right to yell at him for defending me? He's acting as my legal council." He turned and grabbed the doorknob. "It's my decision to quit, and I'm doing for my own reasons."

"You can't just give up like that! I thought you were actually going to work for what you believed in!" Tsunade yelled standing up slamming her fist against the desk. "I thought you were going to accomplish something!"

"I am! There's a different way of doing things then having an all out confrontation with Madara and I'm going to find it! I still do believe that people should have a better quality of life, but you know what?" Naruto said quietly. He still faced the door, calm and steadfast in his reasoning. "What's the use of having a good quality life with your family and friends and good health when you die when you're a kid? That was almost me, and I'm not fighting for that.

"If you haven't noticed, neither of the movements are doing that well fighting against each other." Naruto opened the door and let Shikamaru walk out. "I'm going to find my own solution to the problem."

"I take it that Sasuke's thoughts are in there somewhere?" Jiraiya asked. Naruto listen to the question and simply nodded. "Don't get hurt being a vigilante."

Naruto left the office as well and closed the door behind him. He sighed in relief and a bit upset about how it went over. "A little mellow dramatic, but it got your point through." Shikamaru scoffed. They exited the building and looked over the highly trafficked area. "I wonder if Sakura's given up her pursuit of you."

"I doubt it. She's kind of…" Naruto didn't know how to end the sentence without insult. He instead laughed nervously scratching at the back of his neck. "You know how she is."

"Obsessive? Controlling? Over-protective?"

"She means it in a good way though." Naruto said quietly. He sighed and moved through a little bit of a crowd breaking into the open space of the building and outside. "Sakura just gets a little over emotional. I'd never hold it against her."

"Until she does something stupid you mean. From what it sounded like from Ino, she meant to beat her message into you." Shikamaru pointed out as they walked slowly over to the sidewalk.

"Naruto!" Called a voice from behind them. They turned around and saw Shizune screech to a halt in front of them.

"Eh, Shizune? What is it?" Naruto asked.

"Tsunade, she asked me to tell you not to hold your grudge against the movements against her. I don't quite understand what she meant…" Shizune admitted quietly looking away at the ground.

"Tell her it's alright, I wasn't blaming her in the first place." Naruto said cheerfully. Shizune looked up and smiled. "I'll stop by and see you guys soon. 'Kay, Shinzune?"

"Yeah, see you later Naruto. Good luck accomplishing your goal." She said and walked away waving.

"So, what do you want to do now?" Shikamaru asked shoving his hands in his pockets.

"I think I'm going to go find Sasuke. He's probably at home." Naruto said looked out across campus. "Though, I kind of don't… He'll probably be upset and need to like cool off or something."

"Good grief, this is why I stay out of relationships." Shikamaru sighed heavily. Naruto turned around and began walking away. Shikamaru shrugged and followed. "You know, you've only known him really for a week…"

"So? What's that supposed to mean, Shikamaru?"

"Just make sure you don't drown. You're getting into a lot of stuff, and fast at that. It can be overwhelming." He tried to explain. "You've got baseball coming up…"

"You sound like Kakashi. Keeps bringing up baseball at random times." Naruto said quietly and they exited off campus and onto college road. They walked for a while and stopped in front of the flower shop.

Shikamaru looked at him and at the street. He sighed and stared ahead, "Want to go let Ino know you're alive?"

"I guess." Naruto said and opened the door walking in. They stopped in front of the counter to see Ino reading a glam magazinge. Without much warning Shikamaru grabbed it and set it down. "Working doesn't include reading about beauty products."

"Well fine… Naruto! I see Sakura hasn't killed you yet." Ino said cheerily. She quickly sat up and smiled at them. "So, you've got a boyfriend?"

"Yes, and now everyone knows. Why would you do that, Ino?" Naruto asked seriously. "It wasn't anyone's business in the first place and now everyone's… It's bad. I'm not going to hold it against you, but what gave you the right to send her that picture? What made you think it was alright to wave my business at everyone else?"

"I guess sorry's not good enough." Ino said and sighed lowering her head. "Sakura asked us to keep an eye on you, and she just wanted to know why you were acting strangely. She was worried about you, is all. Why didn't you just tell us you were dating Sasuke?"

"Because I wasn't going out with him until a day or two ago. Anyway, what would you have done if I just came up to you in the hall and told you flat out that I was dating a boy and that boy happened to be Sasuke?" Naruto asked looking at her. "Would you have taken me seriously and if you did what would you have done?"

"Point taken. It's just… awkward. All of this is weird. I'm sorry for the comments about him from earlier in the week; it was mean and uncalled for." Ino apologized. "If you need anything, don't be afraid to ask alright?"

Naruto placed a hand on his stomach and felt it churn. "Hey, can I use your bathroom?"

"Uh, yea." Ino said and pointed to the small door down the hall. She tossed him a small gold key on a red ribbon. "Here's the key."

"Thanks." Naruto caught it and opened the door turning on the light muttering about pancakes. He shut the door and turned around to see a figure there staring nearly blankly at him. "Eh?! Sai?! Are you stalking me?! How'd you get in here?!"

"Sakura…" Sai said softly. He looked down for a minute thinking and turned to look at Naruto eye to eye. "She went to find Sasuke over on Raven Street. I think she's planning on fighting him for rights over you."

"What? We got to get over there!" He felt his stomach again than looked at Sai. He huffed, groaned and went out of the bathroom. "Come Shikamaru! Sakura's going to get killed!"

"That's rather mean putting her at no chance to Sasuke." Sai said walking up behind him. Naruto ignored the comment and raced out of the store dropping the key on the floor. Sai and Shikamaru had to run as fast as they could to keep up. "Sakura is pretty vicious; she could stand up well to Sasuke in a fight."

"Sakura's going up against Sasuke?! What's gotten into her head?" Shikamaru asked to either of them. "Sasuke's practically a lethal weapon. If he gets angry enough, she might end up dead."

"She thinks if she beats Sasuke she'll somehow get Naruto back." Sai said as they rushed past the diner where the Black Birds usually eat. "I told her not to go."

"If she stops being so crazy I'll come back!" Naruto yelled. "After something like this… She seriously thinks…"

"Sakura's just acting irrational. It's kind of big news to here your best friend just turned gay. Give her time." Shikamaru pleaded following him. "Remember when he put you in the hospital; she spent everyday in there with you. Every time you were sick she took care of you. She's just in shock."

"That's because she's in love with him." Sai explained and the group stopped. "What?"

"She's in love with me?! So… she's going psycho non-girlfriend then?" Naruto asked and they both shrugged. "Damn it! Why's everything so complicated?! Why can't everyone just drop it already!"

"Because the chaos theory works." Shikamaru grumbled as they took off again. "Anyway, I think Sakura wouldn't be that foolish to fight Sasuke. She knows what he can do. We both heard about that kid, Sasuke broke his arm without hesitation."

"Actually, Sakura is completely blinded by rage at the moment. She couldn't care to the contrary whether he could be beaten easily or not. It's a matter of pride." Sai said. "She'll keep fighting until she physically can't."

"Sai! Stop analyzing the situation! Right now we need to stop her!" Naruto cried and rushed over the pavements to hear a scream, it was female and familiar. "Sakura!"

"I hope she's not to badly injured." Shikamaru muttered as they made a mad dash down the street.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Sasuke sat down quietly on the steps smiling to himself. He was actually relieved to his surprise. He wouldn't have to hide with Naruto anymore, and he wouldn't have to lie about being in love with him to himself. Sasuke pulled out a piece of paper and pencil and began sketching feverishly. It was the event from before, Naruto's face when Sasuke had him, him out of breath. The image had fused into his mind in perfect color and emotion.

It was very easy for Sasuke to do a simple line art so when he finished he decided to take up the much harder task of shading it. He went carefully, sketching some lines lightly and smudging the graphite with his finger. He smiled at it and sighed. "That went to fast…"

Sasuke shoved that drawing away and looked around for inspiration. Just then the hobo of Sigmund Freud was walking by, "Hey Freud, I have a question for you."

"A question?" The man asked intrigued and stopped in front of him in an old white dress. "Need a psychiatric evaluation, young man?"

"Somewhat. I'm happy because I'm relieved my biggest secret got out. I did everything to hide it and someone posted it everywhere. Is it normal to feel relieved because I don't have to hide?" Sasuke asked and the crazed man scratched his head.

"Could it be… you never wanted it to be a secret in the first place? You want to share it with everyone but are scared to, possibly because of judgment?" The homeless man asked him. "Your id is taking over your superego and your ego, which is perfectly fine."

Sasuke stopped, "That's pretty logical. Thank you, Dr. Freud." Sasuke said and the homeless man smiled and walked away. Sasuke shook his head and laughed, "I wonder what he just said…"

Sasuke picked up the next piece of paper and began looking around again for something to draw. He turned his head and saw someone walking quite fast at him with a scowl. Sasuke sighed, his smile slipped away. He shoved all his things away, zipped up his bag and threw it at the door to the entrance house standing up.

Sakura stopped in front of him and looked up at him. Sasuke just stared at her and groaned. "This is a bad neighborhood; you should get out of here."

"Same to you…" She said in a low voice. They observed each others statures, both dominant. "Where's Naruto?"

"He's out. I'll let him know you came by when he gets home." Sasuke said and took a step up. He waited a second and she didn't budge. Sasuke looked at her and sighed. "I know why you're here. You're here because it got around that Naruto and I are dating, right Sakura? You think that by showing up you'll have some impact on him."

"I have a bone to pick…" Sakura growled and tightened her gloves across her knuckles. "And possibly a couple to break."

"I wouldn't make threats I couldn't follow through with. Little girls can get injured to easily when they're pissed off. They don't think clearly enough. Now, Naruto is happy here, what's upsetting him is that you all won't accept that." Sasuke said sagely and took a step down towards her. "Just leave, it's the only warning I'll give you."

Sakura just smiled with a challenging look about her. "I want Naruto back you son of a bitch! You took him from me."

"No, I didn't." Sasuke said in almost a whisper. "He's free to leave me whenever he likes. I'll let him go if he wants me to."

"You're toying with him." Sakura yelled. "Is this some kind of game to you? He's been put through Hell by you or don't you remember? You put him in the intensive care unit! How could you possibly not hurt him again? You're just sick to keep him around you!

"Naruto isn't like all your other little friends, he's liked and popular. He has friends who care about him. He has things going for him at school. He's becoming a professional athlete. Where do you think you'd fall into all that? You're the thing that would ruin all of it. You completely mess him up." Sakura said pointing a finger in his face. "Admit it; you're just playing with him."

Sasuke stopped and looked down. "I don't want to hurt Naruto. I love him… more then anything. You should understand that, Sakura."


	26. Entitlement

"Please just leave." Sasuke asked politely and sat back down on the steps. He casually pulled out his cigarettes and his lighter and lit up waiting for her to move. He was upset when Sakura had chosen instead to cross her arms. Sasuke took a drag and looked at her. "What are you hoping to accomplish, he's not here."

"Accomplish? I want him back and you…" Sasuke groaned and rolled his eyes. "Don't you dare not pay attention to me! This is all your fault that Naruto's confused!"

"You have the same argument, one that I've already smashed into the ground. Leave, Sakura, before you embarrass yourself even more." Sasuke said and continued to watch the pink haired girl. Without much time Sasuke caught a fist coming at him. "You definitely don't want to fight me."

"And what if I do…" Sakura curled her other fist and tried to aim it at his head. Sasuke however caught it with his other hand. He pushed her off and set his cigarette down on the steps. "How can you be so calm about this?!"

She lunged again, Sasuke caught her arm and twisted it behind her back. "It's because I'm a better fighter then you. All you do is wrestling, I do things that would actually help me. Listen, I'll let go, and you can leave. No harm done."

"Fat chance!" Sakura tried to untwist and hit him. Sasuke sighed to himself. Without much effort or want he quickly grabbed her hand and broke her thumb. Sakura let out a loud wailing scream and stepped back grabbing her thumb. She began crying softly and then looked up at him angrily. She quickly ignored the pain and began trying to punch him, all of which Sasuke negated with a careful hand.

"Your thumb's broken, you should go get it taken care of instead of trying to hit me." Sakura smiled and swung a leg around. Sasuke notice and dropped her stepping back and returning the favor. He kicked her square in the chest sending her flying back hitting the pavement. The noise was horrible. "I don't want to hurt you anymore! You're being ridiculous!"

"I want him back!" Sakura yelled sitting up. "What do you know about Naruto?! You've only been talking to him for a few days. I've been there for him for years!"

"Entitlement? Is that what you're feeling Sakura? Naruto's yours because you deserve him?" Sasuke said and sighed brushing his bangs out of his face. "That's a stupid reason for coming all the way out here to get your ass handed to you."

Sakura stood up and got her balance back running at him. "I'm going to…"

Sakura was quickly caught by Sai and Shikamaru and dragged a few feet away. Naruto skipped right past the angry girl and went straight to Sasuke. Naruto grabbed Sasuke's hand and began looking over the situation. "What happened?"

"I told her to shoo and she persisted so I broke her thumb. She kept going so I kicked her away and then you guys showed up." Sasuke said honestly. He looked at Sakura who kept trying to get away from Sai and Shikamaru.

"You've got to calm down, Sakura." Shikamaru said and she elbowed him in the face getting him off her. Shikamaru grabbed his nose and watched as Sai had to tackle Sakura to the ground. "Good grief… We know you're upset but that's uncalled for."

"Sakura," Naruto said letting go of Sasuke and walking over to sit down next to where she was pinned. She took a minute crying to herself staring around at the ground before looking up at Naruto with two pale green eyes, tears coating them. "Hi."

"Hi." She said a bit aggressively. She looked up at Sai, "Let me sit up."

Sai let go of her and Sakura sat up grabbing her thumb. She took a deep breath and looked at Naruto. "What the Hell is wrong with you? You can't just leave all of us for him! They're the trash of the city! He's just going to end up hurting you again!"

"Shut up!" Naruto yelled interrupting her and Sakura looked surprised. "What do you know about any of this? You're just pissed because I don't love you! You don't know anything about what's been going on and are using your own wants to justify some stupid crusade. I know you too well to given in to this BS."

"I'm trying to look out for your best interests!" She tried pleading. "How is someone like him going to do anyone any good? Look at where he lives, who his friends are, they're all trash. Not to mention his uncle…"

"I'm not Madara." Sasuke said deeply yet pained as if the comparison was cruel.

"You mind as well be!" Saskura yelled. "You're just using him for…"

"You're looking out for your own interests!" Naruto snapped quickly. He looked away from her calming down. "I don't love you, I'm sorry if I made you think that, but I don't Sakura."

Sakura's head lowered and she began crying lightly. Naruto held out a hand and placed it on her shoulder. She shrugged it off so Naruto went up to stand by Sasuke. Sai was the one who grabbed Sakura and helped her to her feet.

"Come on, Sakura. We should get you to the hospital." Sai said leading her away past them. He stopped by Naruto and Sasuke, looking at the latter. "I'm sorry about this."

"It's fine." Sasuke said softly and watched as the two went away from the area. He sighed and looked at Naruto to smile, though it was a little off. "You're not mad at me for injuring her, are you?"

"No, I'm not mad. She's just upset and started something." Naruto reassured and grabbed his hand back. He turned to Shikamaru. "So, guess I don't need a babysitter anymore?"

"Yea, I'll do what I can for people who are being homophobic, mainly yelling at them. I was going to stop by and see Ino again, any messages?" Naruto shook his head. Shikamaru nodded and began to walk away. "Alright, see you guys at school."

"Bye." Naruto said and waved as Shikamaru disappeared. Naruto bit his lips together and looked at Sasuke softly. "I'm sorry about that, she's…"

"Forget it. Karin went off on you, remember? It just evens the board out." Sasuke said and rubbed his thumb against Naruto's hand. Slowly he began leading him towards the stoop. "So, what's up?"

"Not much, you?" Sasuke shook his head but did lean over and pick up his cigarette to stick it back in his mouth. "Stressed?"

Sasuke nodded slightly and dragged Naruto over to the stoop to sit down with Naruto in front of him so he could lean down on him. Sasuke took a long drag and blew the smoke away from them, "Deadly yet soothing." Sasuke wrapped both arms around Naruto and cuddled him. "You know… I haven't seen Jugo today. I hope he didn't get arrested."

"I'm sure he'll be fine. He seems like he could easily run from the police." Naruto said oddly. "Do you want to go play videogames? I brought my system over."

"Are you asking me to kill Yoda more?" Sasuke laughed tossing the cigarette by his foot and smashing it out. "Don't you think the Jedi master has suffered enough under your playing? It might be considered torture now."

"Aw, shut up." Naruto said standing up and dragging Sasuke with him. "Anyway, it's not like you can win all the time. You have to mess up someday."

"Someday yes, hopefully it's years away and I'll die from it." Sasuke said smartly as they moved down to the Black Birds basement. He pulled an arm around the blond and smiled.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

"Will you stop reading that fan fiction shit, Jugo." Said a large man grabbing a pile of printed out sheets from Jugo. "It rots your brain and ruins your favorite mangas. You're reading this…? He'll never get him back to the village, kid should give up. Anyway Jugo, you're not getting paid to sit around all day."

"Shut up, I'm fine reading this until a customer comes. Anyway, you're not the boss, Jirobo." Jugo argued taking the story back.

"Yea you fat ass, stay out of this." Tayuya yelled from her station where she was working on a new sketch for a customer. "Some type of artist you are, you can't see past your arm fat to see what you're drawing!"

"Stop being so mean, Tayuya! I'm big boned!"

"You're annoying," Sakon hissed and received the next page of the fan fiction from Jugo.

"They're more then annoying." Ukon growled. He sat across from his brother and turned the radio up to hear Ozzy blaring. All five in the tattoo parlor stopped and began singing along with Mr. Crowley like their lives depended on it. The front door opened and Kidomaru walked in to the wall of bad singing. "Keep it down, the parlor's not a karaoke bar."

"Yeah, we don't have any good beer for that." Tayuya said quickly. The song faded out and the radio announcer came on. "Oh, that songs too short."

"_Just breaking news folks…_"

"Yeah, you think they'd make a heavier remix." Ukon said with Sakon nodding.

"_This in from county: the people eater is out on the loose!_"

"I mean what's the use of news when I want to jam." Tayuya said as they observed Jugo getting up to go stand by the radio and crank it. "Hey Jugo, there's…"

"Shut up for a minute!" Jugo roared and they all went quiet. "_That's right serial killer Zetsu what-ever-the-Hell-his-last-name-is is on the loose after get this, after taking a bit of his guards throat killing him and escaping. He's been on the loose for ten minutes now…_" Jugo turned the radio down. "I have to go take care of something."

"Where you going, man-eater hunting?" Jirobo asked half in a laugh.

"Yeah, I think I know where he's heading, and I want to take care of this quickly." Jugo quickly left the parlor, and began heading down the street to the college. He knew the people he would be looking for was quantity. Jugo stopped at a pay phone and tossed a few coins in and dialed Sasuke's phone. "Hey, Zetsu broke out, stay inside…. I'm on it, I won't go back to prison, don't worry, but just in case I fail, be ready."

Jugo quickly hung up and began laughing a bit, he would get to kill someone today. The large man rushed on campus and stopped by the science building where predictably the green haired man was hiding behind a bush. It was then that Madara came out of the building and Zetsu started to make his approach.

The red hair man quickly grabbed Zetsu shoulder and pulled him back into the bush. "How do you want to die, Lecter?"

Zetsu squealed and tried to take a bite of Jugo but he moved to fast and smashed in Zetsu mouth. Jugo laughed quietly, a bit crazed. Zetsu spit out a little blood and a tooth and looked at him. He tried at words but failed.

"Your mouth… it's your prized possession…" Jugo said and without much warning he stuck his hand in his mouth grabbing the lower jaw and dislocating it, ripping part of it. Zetsu screamed and it could be heard. Jugo in a moment of panic quickly snapped Zetsu's neck and fled the area. "I'm not going back to that cell… I'm not going back to prison."

Jugo stopped at a street corner and grabbed his breath. As soon as he had it he took back to the tattoo parlor and rushed inside to a sink to begin scrubbing his hands. "Hey, Jugo, you alright?" Kidomaru asked looking at him.

"I'm fine, I was never gone, you all got that?" Jugo said and sat down to resume reading his fan fictions. "_We got more breaking news on the green people eater; he was just murdered at the campus, right outside the science building. I don't agree with vigilante justice, but by all means the cannibal got what he deserved: his jaw ripped off and neck broken._"

"Jugo… you killed him?" Tayuya asked quietly sitting foreword in her chair and pointing at him. "You ripped his jaw off…?"

The parlor slowly looked at him. Sakon smiled, "don't worry, we'll keep our mouths shut, you're one of us after all."

"I say free tattoos for the next half an hour!" Tayuya yelled cheerfully.

"You just want to finish that rose you started on your thigh for free." Kidomaru snickered.

"Want to make something of it, bug boy?" Tayuya yelled standing up. "I'll squish you under my boot!"

"Maybe I should go home…" Jugo said distantly. Jirobo was the only one who noticed and nodded in agreement. He handed off the rest of the story to Sakon, "I'll finish it tomorrow."

"Right." Sakon took them and watched as Jugo walked out of the building smiling to himself.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Sasuke and Naruto had just made themselves at home in the basement when Sasuke's phone went off stopping him from kissing the blond. Sasuke quickly answered the pay phone call and heard Jugo out until he was hung up on. "Well, that's shit. Come on, we got to go tell Karin."

"Tell her what?" Naruto asked as he was pulled upstairs to the third floor. Sasuke, being who he is, burst into Karin's room to find her and Suigetsu on the floor playing with Little Karin.

"Karin, Jugo is going after the assassin Zetsu, the one who eats people. He just escaped from prision, Jugo said he'd take care of it." Sasuke said quickly without a hint of emotion in his voice. "I thought you should know."

"That bastard's going to get himself killed. I hope he just kills him and tries not to play around." Karin said rolling her eyes. Suigetsu laughed, "Jugo's going to mutilate him! Say! That's the guy who tried to come back after you, the one you got arrested, right?"

"Yes, I'm pretty sure that's why Jugo is in pursuit, otherwise he would have told me just to keep everyone away from strangers." Sasuke gripped Naruto's hand and smiled turning out the door. They walked a few feet down the hall and Sasuke whispered, "Isn't that cute?"

"They're getting along, that's weird." Naruto whispered back as they went down a floor and went into Naruto's room under the eyes of the characters on the posters. Naruto showed the TV and set and they began hooking the wires up just leaving the station on the floor.

"Ta-da… now I can beat Yoda up whenever I want." Sasuke said putting the game in then falling onto Naruto's bed. Naruto lay down next to him and grabbed the remotes for them. "I kind of feel bad for Yoda."

"Why?" Naruto asked looking at him.

"He's a little green troll, no wonder he became a Jedi, he would have never gotten laid anyway." Sasuke laughed. He grabbed Naruto around the waist. "Which is why Jedi suck."

"Sasuke…" Naruto said meekly before the brunette pushed their lips together. They both dropped their controllers leaving the game on its menu in a loop.

Sasuke moved his hand up and cupped the side of Naruto's face pulling away from him. Keeping their foreheads together he felt the warmth of the blonde's breath rolling over his lips. Sasuke smiled; "Naruto… we forgot to close the door again, didn't we?"

"Yeah, we did." He whispered back.

"Oh well. I just hope Karin's video camera isn't charged." Sasuke said and pressed back hard against him.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Sasuke laughed slightly and they brushed their lips together before Sasuke sat up looking at the door. Naruto watched his stillness for a second before he heard the noises Sasuke heard. The footsteps walked down the hall and stopped with a door opening. They then continued and Jogo showed up in the door of Naruto's room.

"They sent me home early, we weren't doing anything anyway." Jugo muttered looking at them. He stopped and looked down, contemplating something. He suddenly looked up at the two. "Can I come in?"

"Mind as well, the door's open." Sasuke said and watched as the man walked in towering over the bed and then collapsed on the floor. He sighed heavily and looked at them. "Jugo, is he back in jail?"

"No, he's at the morgue… I lost control." Jugo admitted slowly. Jugo looked somewhat disturbingly down at the floor and sighed. "I feel kind of shitty about it, even if it was a cannibal. It was like killing a mouse; he squeaked and I broke his neck. Now I'm in some damn moral dilemma."

"_Of Mice and Men_, huh? He would have gotten me killed if you hadn't stopped him. As far as I see it, you just saved the tax payers some money." Sasuke noted and placed a hand on his shoulder. Jugo nodded understanding his argument. "Why don't you play some video games with us?"

"Yeah, here, Jugo." Naruto said holding out his controller. Jugo took it and looked at the screen. "What game is this?"

"Soul caliber IV. The one with Yoda and Darth Vader." Sasuke said excitedly.

Naruto made a grunting noise, "He means the little green troll he likes to throw off the edge and himself. Jedi hater." Sasuke playfully hit him on the shoulder and laughed.

"I've never played before." Jugo said and Sasuke started the game. They heard footsteps coming down the stairs and over to the room where Karin holding little Karin in her ball with Suigetsu behind her walked in abruptly. "Hi."

"I take it the murder's gone?" Karin asked. Jugo nodded. Karin looked at them, "Am I interrupting video game time?"

"Yes, but it's okay." Sasuke said and looked at the screen to pick out his character. "So, what's new?"

"Not much, little Karin won't let me touch her anymore because of Lobster." Karin growled shooting him a dirty look.

"I just fed it and threatened to kill it." Suigetsu repeated. He shrugged and moved in sitting down next to her. Little Karin immediately tried to go to him. "See, just be obscenely cruel to the gerbil and she'll love you."

"Shut up Suigetsu." Karin turned away anyways and walked in to sit down next to Jugo. "What are we doing? Camping out in Naruto's room."

"I guess. Well, I'm allowed to, Naruto, is it okay?" Sasuke asked looking over at him.

"I don't care." Naruto said and sat up moving off the bed. They all stopped and watched as he walked out of the room muttering. "I almost forgot to go to the bathroom."


	27. OMG Karin, OMG

"We haven't done it to him yet, the walk-in-laugh joke." Suigetsu smiled as he looked towards Sasuke. The Uchiha didn't seem to notice his statement so he continued louder. "It's harmless and we've done it to everyone else. Maybe it'll cheer you both up."

"I'm not trying to scare him off though. You can ask Karin, the joke can be seen as mean in the eyes of the pranked." Sasuke said looking at him. Suigetsu pouted and looked as pathetic as he could so he could get his way and do the joke. Sasuke sighed. "Fine, well do the prank; however, if he hates me for it, I'm taking it out on you. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I got it. So everyone remember how to do it?" Suigetsu asked excitedly. Karin and Jugo nodded. They waited for Naruto to come back from the bathroom quietly. Hearing footsteps in the hall everyone saw as Naruto wandered in. In sync they burst out laughing leaving Naruto clueless.

"Um…" Naruto tried to say and then check his pants thinking he neglected his zipper. He was fine, after a few seconds the laugher died down. "What…?" They began up again. Naruto sighed and crossed his arms trying to examine the situation. Sasuke noticed and called it off immediately. "What was that about?"

"We call it the walk-in-laugh. It's a joke we do with everyone, we just laugh until the person is really uncomfortable." Karin explained. Jugo nodded, "There's no harm intended. Just good fun."

"Right…" Naruto said and moved past all of them to crawl up on the bed next to Sasuke. He pulled up his pillow and curled into it, head half on Sasuke's leg. "That's a weird joke to pull. Have you guys just ever sat in a public place and done that to anyone who walks by? That'd be hilarious then youtube it."

"No but that's an awesome idea." Suigetsu said noting it. Sasuke reached his hand down and slapped him upside the head. "Hey, it was your boyfriend's idea! Blame him… I mean we don't go out anymore as Black Birds and just wreak havoc. That's what we should be doing."

"Like that time we spray painted pictures of naked chicks on the windows of the school?" Jugo said smiling as he reminisced, "And we did it just because you guys didn't want to take a test. They shut down the school for two days for cleaning."

"I didn't know it would stain the glass but I'm glad it did. I still failed that test but I got the project done." Suigetsu laughed. "What about the time we annihilated the museum in golf carts?"

"Which one, we hit all three that week?" Jugo asked. "Weapons, space or history?"

"History was the best one. Suigetsu nearly stole a dinosaur skull from the display. Jugo put on the Samurai armor and Sasuke silly stringed all the statues and displays." Karin laughed. She shook her head, "I'm still in disbelief we got away with that by just knocking out the power and wearing gloves. Though it did give them the publicity to keep the museums up and running. They should have sent out a thank you or something."

"And addressed it to the scoundrels who cause thousands in damages to our museum? 'Dear scoundrels, even though you caused thousands of dollars worth of damages and we had to close the museum for a week, the next weeks profit was incredible. Thanks for the hassles, A-holes!" Suigetsu yelled. "Man, I would have loved to see their faces. Wish we could go do some shit like that soon. Not minor stuff but something big."

"He's got a point." Karin said agreeing for once. "We spend too much time working against your uncle, Sasuke. We need to take a weekend to ourselves. Just go and be kids again."

"Yea, I know." Sasuke said somewhat upset and just shut the gaming system off figuring they wouldn't be using it. They went quiet for a minute until Suigetsu yawned and began ruffling through his pockets to find a watch. "Go to go somewhere, Suigetsu?"

"Yea, I got the assistant coach job, got to go to practice in a few. Get to annoy the freshmen, and the eight grade swimmers are coming to practice today, I'll be in charge of them too." Suigetsu laughed. Smirking evilly he clenched his fist. "I'm going to run them till their dead."

"Great, he wants to kill the children now." Karin mocked. "We'll be getting calls from the police about Suigetsu exhausting people until they drowned."

"I'd say something along the lines of 'wonder if gerbils can swim' but I'd get in trouble." Suigetsu teased back. They gave each other the raspberry and turned away from the other with a loud 'humph.'

"I can't believe they'd put you in charge of children." Karin growled lowly. "Someone with a felony on record shouldn't be able to work with kids. You should be locked back up."

"Hey I'm working off that kill, I've served in Juvenile Hall and I can't fucking work anywhere besides with people who know me. Anyway I'm going in next month to see if I can get it taken off unlike you whose prostitution arrests will remain. Better me then you, at least I won't try to rape the cute ones." Suigetsu said teasing.

"I have never tried to rape anyone." Karin bawled up her fist and slugged Suigetsu in the face. He reeled back and clenched his nose checking to see that it wasn't broken.

"Sasuke!" He whimpered. Making a sad face he looked for sympathy. "Karin hit me really hard when I'm already injured!"

"You had it coming." Sasuke said quietly. "What did you really expect from Karin? That she would laugh or something while being accused of attempted rape? You need to use your head more, Suigetsu."

"Yeah, who knows, maybe your brain will start working if I hit you hard enough." Karin said and then tried to get Little Karin to agree with her. "Yes it will, won't it Lil' Karin?"

"Karin, you need to ease up on Suigetsu. He's not the only one with a record. Anyway, you antagonized him." Sasuke said passively. "You're both to blame."

"I know, it's just she can actually hit." Suigetsu sighed rubbing the side of his face. He sighed and put his hand down smiling. "Oy, Sasuke, do you think it's possible to do suicides in the water?"

"I don't know, seems like it'd be pretty hard. What? Are you going to have them attempt them?" The bleach blonde nodded. Sasuke laughed, "Tell me if it works out, I think it'd be funny to see. All these little eighth graders trying to stop dead in the pool and turn around."

"Can I borrow your car, too? I don't really feel like walking." Suigetsu said. He and Sasuke exchanged looks for a second. "Please?" He smiled wide showing his piranha-like teeth.

"Don't scratch it." Sasuke said digging his keys out of his pockets. Suigetsu caught them and stood up. "Also, don't try to run over anyone in it. It's new and in mint condition and I intend to keep it that way."

"Like I would do that, I like stabbing too much. I'll pull the car over to kill anyone." Suigetsu laughed and walked out waving to everyone. Karin stood up and stretched. Jugo looked at her, "You going somewhere too, Karin?"

"Yea, back to bed. Today's been too hectic for my taste. I figure a nap would do me some good." Karin said and looked over all of them. She then smiled and pointed next to Sasuke. "Looks like Naruto's got me beat, he's already out."

"He is…?" Sasuke asked and turned to look at him. The blond was silently sleeping, head buried in Sasuke's leg. Sasuke inadvertently began stroking his hair with a little smile. He sighed and swiftly got off the bed. "We should let him sleep."

"Yeah." Karin said as she and Jugo left the room followed by Sasuke who shut the light off and closed the door silently. Karin waved to them and took off carrying Little Karin under an arm without another word. Jugo and Sasuke looked at each other. "So?"

"I dunno." Jugo replied shrugging. "I think I'm going to go tattoo myself. Want to come and watch? I've got an outline done of a large mermaid." Jugo lifted up the hem of his shorts to show the woman whose features were exaggerated.

"Nawh… I think I might go crawl into bed with Naruto." Sasuke said and turned o go back into the room but felt a hand on his shoulder. Jugo was gazing down at him. "What is it?"

"You have a nasty habit of taking what you want, Sasuke. You better not do anything to him without consent." Jugo said threateningly. He growled lowly and began to stalk down the hall. "Friend or not… You know what I mean."

"That weird moral code you live by." Sasuke said coolly and turned to the door. "I'm not going to. Trust me."

Sasuke said as Jugo disappeared and he opened up the room to step inside. Sasuke closed the door to find himself in a pitch black room. He walked carefully over to the bed letting his legs hit the side. He laid down carefully next to Naruto and moved a hand to his waist. Closing his eyes he pulled himself into the blond, nuzzling up under his chin.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Suigetsu was in the car about to leave when he realized he was forgetting one important thing: his blow horn. He stopped and quickly got out of the car and ran back inside passing Jugo. He got up to his room and began shuffling around the empty cans and bottles and found the horn. He then stepped outside and saw Karin sneaking over to Naruto's door. "What's up ketchup head?"

Karin quickly put her finger to her mouth and went to the door listening. Suigetsu crept over and whispered, "That's spying. If Sasuke catches you, you're toast."

"Shut up, I'm just listening. Sasuke went back in there." She said blushing a bit. She waited a minute and sighed. "I think he went to sleep too. How disappointing."

"Per-vert." Suigetsu said poking her in the back of the head. Karin quickly smacked his hand away and shushed him again. Suigetsu smiled and continued. "Like they'd seriously do anything with such a huge pervert like yourself in the house. He expects that you'll be trying to watch. We all know about your Yoai collection."

"Oh shut up and get to your practice already." Karin said walking away muttering to herself. Suigetsu followed making fun of her hobby.

"I think it was actually Sasuke that found it, wasn't it. He called it 'weird' as it were." Suigetsu said placing a finger on his chin thinking. "He actually thought about throwing it all away, but it wasn't his room."

"Stop following me already, go teach brats how to swim!"

"You're just mad because I caught you trying to catch Sasuke. Wait until I tell him…" Suigetsu joked and was met by a manicure finger in his face. "Whoa… Karin I was."

"Shut… Up…" She said through her teeth. Suigetsu without notice bolted past her and out of the house. Karin quickly sighed and sat down in the kitchen waiting for something to happen. To her surprise nothing did. "That's awkward…

"Oh well." Karin got up and began up the stairs to her room. She stopped on the second story and decided to listen in again. She pressed her ear lightly to the door of the room and did hear something. She waited to try and make out what it was when the door opened causing her to fall. "Um… Sasuke… I was wondering if you were still awake."

"Wondering if I was still awake? And meant to accomplish this by sticking an ear to the door and listening? That's quite stupid of you." Sasuke glared down at her with a cold pair of eyes. "I heard Suigetsu, he would be in the right for telling me. And yes, Yoai is weird, who wants to stare at cartoons getting it on when there's free porn all over the internet."

"Well, I um…" Karin giggled nervously and backed up a bit. Sasuke began walking out forcing her to back up to the wall and finally stand up. "Well, you know…"

"Do I need to tell Jugo that you were snooping around? He has this thing about people's personal space. You know it's not nice to invade other people's privacy." Sasuke said and took a step out grabbing her arm. "Karin, go away."

"You're so mean…" His hand released simply. She squealed nervously than began her way upstairs to her own space. Sasuke was left alone standing in the hall. He smiled and walked back in the room shutting the door behind him. Sasuke crawled back in bed and stroked the side of Naruto's face trying to walk him softly. What he got was a low grunt.

"Naruto." Sasuke whispered softly. He dragged his hand across the blonde's cheek again and felt movement. "Naruto, wake up."

"Sasuke… what's wrong?" Naruto said thinking something bad was happening. He then opened his eyes to the complete black except the dim glow from the black TV and the hall light creeping in from under the door. Naruto felt the hand slip behind his head and pull him in. "Sasuke…"

Sasuke pulled their lips together softly. He tore his lips away for a second and smiled, even though Naruto couldn't see him. "Naruto… Can I have you?"

"Have…?" Naruto thought for a minute about what Sasuke was asking of him. He blushed, his face warming at the thought. "Yes."

Naruto felt Sasuke hand drape down to his waist. A hot wisp of breath flashed over his face and Naruto reached out to put his hand on Sasuke's neck. They came together sweetly, both of their hands began to clench. It was then Sasuke paused and sat up to take his shirt off.

Sasuke laughed playfully and tossed Naruto down on his back ramming their mouths together. During their first pull apart Naruto decided to copy Sasuke by throwing off his shirt not knowing what he was really supposed to be doing. Being so stubborn, Naruto decided he wasn't going to ask either.

Sasuke immediately pushed back in sliding a hand down Naruto's bare chest. His hand stopped at Naruto's waist and griped tightly. Their heads parted and Sasuke laughed a bit. "You're so tense, I can feel it."

"Sorry… I…" Naruto muttered.

"I know you've never done this before. Don't worry." Sasuke said gently kissed the side of his smiled and then licked his entire neck in one fell swoop; the blond tinged at the sensation. "It won't hurt this time."

"This time?" Naruto asked and turned his head to where he felt Sasuke.

"Don't worry about it, Naruto." Sasuke said and lowered his head back to Naruto's neck.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

"Are you okay… Karin?" Jugo asked coming up to the third floor with crossword book in hand. The girl just keep walking back and forth nervously. "Um… you didn't get into my coffee did you?"

"No, why?" Karin asked stopping and looking at him.

"It was some stupid extra caffeine blend from Jirobo. What's up?" He said pushing past her to open up his room. "You look as though you're going crazy."

"There downstairs and I know what they're doing but they won't let me know what they're doing even though I know what they're doing." Karin said quickly. She shoved her thumb in her mouth and began gnawing on it erratically.

"Karin, why don't you just go watch your Yoai. Give Sasuke and Naruto their peace." Jugo said trying to pull her away from the stairs. "You need to respect that their a couple and most couples do not approve of being watched by a crazed fan girl. It's like if some weirdo tried to watch you and Suigetsu."

"EXCUSE ME! Suigetsu and I do nothing! I'm not even dating him!" Karin yelled angrily. "I will have you know that I have no plans on ever doing that with some stupid kappa!"

"But I thought you liked him." Jugo said simply and turned his head. "Aren't you the person who writes about him in your journal? You write about him and Sasuke."

"You looked in my journal?" Karin's jaw dropped. "What about your morals of privacy?"

"I'm your father, technically… I should know what you're up to." Jugo said and easily put a hand on her head. "I'm just trying to have some responsibility. Anyway it's not like it's hurting you."

"Well if you're my father shouldn't you be discouraging sleeping with people or something? What kind of back-ass-ward guy are you?"

"A reasonable one. I already know you're not a virgin so why try to force you to stay celibate? You're being careful and using protection and Suigetsu would take good care of you." Jugo said shrugging and moving to go into his room. "Anyway, you seem stressed, getting laid would help that."

"I.. aghh!" Karin yelled loudly. She watched as Jugo went into his room and shut the door. She stopped and crossed her arms. "That makes absolutely no sense…I'm surrounded by weirdoes… At least I fit in."


	28. Ah, the lemon

"That's impossible." Said one of the freshmen looking up at their coach. Suigetsu who had a whistle in his hand looking down at the group of twenty some in the pool and laughed. "You can't do dead stops in the water at our level."

"Yea, at your level, so you're going to push past it today." Suigetsu said simply. He pointed up to the flags marking the pool into fourths. "Suicides, you go to the first marker then back, second then back, third then back, full then back, third than back, second then back, and first then back. You will complete one of these. You have ten minutes to do it in. If you fail on your first attempt you will get a second attempt… along with the entire grade. So, fish, you do well you don't have to do it again. Incoming fish AKA eighth graders, you do it well you don't have to do it again."

There was a unanimous feeling of despair over the group as Suigetsu had them line up and blew the whistle. He watched them for a while before getting bored and sitting down picking up a magazine. He had a feeling they would all be doing the activity again.

* * *

Jugo was sitting with his music at a normal level when he heard a knock at the door. He was going to get up from the grey and tattered bed when Karin burst in and quickly dropped to the floor listening. Suddenly she looked up at Jugo and hissed, "Turn off your music."

"Karin, seriously, let them have their peace." Jugo said annoyed. He got up and grabbed her from the floor. "If Sasuke doesn't want you down there, you don't go down there. If he doesn't want you listening, then you don't listen."

"But I know what they're doing!" Karin said upset. She put her hands on his trying to pry free. She was soon exhausted as it wasn't working at all. "Come on, you've got to let me at least hear it!"

Jugo sighed as he reaffirmed his grip on her arm and began leading her out of his room. In two large strolls he was at her door. He opened it and forced her inside. "You're grounded to your room. You'll stay there until dinner, Karin."

"What?! You can't ground me!" Karin yelled and began out but Jugo suddenly changed. She stepped back and sat down on the edge of her bed. Jugo snorted loudly and slammed the door closed.

* * *

"That's what I don't get, it hurts doesn't it?" Naruto asked looking up at Sasuke. The Uchiha had just tossed a small bottle of lube off the side of the bed only to lay his face dangerously close to Naruto's.

"Well duh, but it's fun too." Sasuke said raising a hand to drap lightly across the blonde's face turning his head. Delicatly a thumb traced over his lips. "You're asking too many questions, Naruto."

"Well, it's just… The prison rape stories and everything." Sasuke stopped and began laughing lightly. Naruto didn't think it was funny and shoved Sasuke on the shoulder. "Seriously, isn't it like a punishment there or something?"

"I have lube and anything that is forced is unpleasant. Don't worry, since it's your first time I'll take uke." Sasuke said trying to stop his laughter.

"What's that?" Sasuke smiled at the innocence and quickly pressed his mouth to Naruto's ear. He told Naruto very slowly and blatantly about taking bottom opposed to seme. "Oh… You sure?"

"Well if you're offering." Sasuke said and quickly sat up grabbing Naruto's naked thighs and pulling them apart with a lot of force. Naruto let out a small squeaking noise and lurched up. Sasuke let go of his legs. "Calm down, I'm only playing. Don't worry so much, everything will be fine. You'll like it I promise."

Sasuke crawled up on him pushing him back and kissed him square in the chest. As Sasuke moved more and more down his hair fell down on either side brushing Naruto's abs. He squirmed lightly at the tickling feeling. There was a sudden feeling, an unmistakable sensation. Naruto's breathing slowly became heavier, murmuring at the nerves that pulsed through his body.

Naruto's hands went down to his sides and he grasped carelessly at his sheets bundling them. Sasuke glared up at him, wishing he could see Naruto's face. He pulled off and crawled above Naruto to kiss him roughly shoving their tongues against one another.

* * *

"What do you all think of inviting Sasuke into our little circle? I think he would be a good addition." Madara said sitting back in his chair looking around at everyone. The door opened and Konan came in looking quite pale. Silently she sat down next to Nagato.

"I don't like that idea Madara." Nagato said gruffly as he turned and looked at Konan who was busy playing with a small rubix cube. He quickly snatched it away and asked her to pay more attention. "He seems, and don't mind the cliché, like a loose canon. If anything I'd be thinking about getting that nephew of yours in an anger management class. He could be very dangerous for us."

"Not to mention if you even mention 'Sasuke' and 'movement' in the same sentence Itachi looks like he's going to kill you." Hidan laughed. He stopped and smiled, "I think we should bring the kid in just because I want to see what Itachi would do. Plus, he looks like he could take over Zetsu job on knocking people out since Kakuzu doesn't like street clothes."

The older man grabbed his partner by the neck and looked at him angrily. "I am a forty-seven year old man, and I look like it, and I'm happy with that. I do not want to go around dressed up as some punk-assed, whiny little…"

"Enough!" Madara called over the room. Only half the people were assembled, the half that wouldn't stand by Itachi. Madara began pacing back and fourth in the lab trying to think. He wouldn't know whether to ask Sasuke or not to join.

"Does he even want to join?" Konan asked looking over everyone. She shrugged, "why ask if he doesn't want to. It'd be a waste of breath and upset Itachi, and you all remember how useful he is with his connection to the police department. Why don't you call and ask him what he thinks?"

"That's a good idea." Madara said and pulled out his phone. He began to press a button and stopped, "I'll be out in the hall."

They watched as Madara left the room. Nagato sighed. "We don't need that little punk. If Madara brings him in there will be nothing but trouble. Word reached me from the high school; he broke some kids arm in two seconds without anger or remorse. Someone like that is dangerous."

"We don't need a prodigy of Madara." Konan said nearly in a whisper. "I don't want him in either but Madara wants to make this a family business. He's our boss, what can we do?"

"Nothing, and we shouldn't do anything. He seems like he's self-destructive. I don't want to end up fired over some punk ass kid." Nagato growled. They went quiet for a minute and Madara came back in. He shoved his phone away. "He must have been busy, so, let's move on to the serum."

"Um, sir, before we get back to that… He's been spotted." Konan said. Everyone stopped and looked at her as she pulled out a small photo. "It's blurry, but it's him. He's been seen looming around the campus somewhat like a ghost."

Konan slowly stepped foreword and placed the photo on the desk. Madara moved it foreword then slowly picked it up gazing carefully.

* * *

They had switched positions to something Naruto would probably feel more comfortable with. He was on top, the normal dominate male position. Sasuke was uke as he said he would be; he lay with his teeth gritted slightly taking in both the pain and pleasure of the moment.

Naruto was scared of hurting Sasuke in some way so he went slowly and carefully listening to the gasps of breath of the young Uchiha for any sign of extreme pain. However he was having trouble containing himself. He heard his own breathing, felt how warm Sasuke was inside. He wanted to let go and take what he wanted, but he didn't and couldn't do that.

They stayed in a constant motion of slow deliberate movements, a few gentle pets and some small simple encouragements in the form of a low groan. Sasuke reached a hand over to Naruto's and grabbed it tightly. With a great deal of effort on his part Sasuke sat up and kissed Naruto on the forehead. He moved his head off to the side and whispered slowly into his ear. "Naruto… faster."

Sasuke quickly laid back and gritted his teeth as his words took hold of the blond. Naruto forced his way into Sasuke deeper and deeper. Sasuke clenched, his fingers digging into the mattress and Naruto's hands, and let out a noise that sounded like he was punched in the stomach. Naruto kept going, thrusting in and out faster until he was running on pure instinct.

* * *

Madara's hand slowly began shaking. He looked up at Konan and she stepped back next to Nagato. She sighed deeply. "I've already changed all the codes on the labs, information and security passes for this building. As we speak I'm having Deidara and Sasori transfer the files we kept in the library vault over to our private vault. Due to the threat from the fire, Kisame and Itachi already have the medicines hidden away. We are secure if he is looking to steal from us."

Waiting for a response from him they began to look amoungst themselves. Kakuzu stopped and looked at him questioningly, "Hey Madara. What's the matter?"

"This…" Madara said tossing the photo on the floor in front of all of them. He put his head in his hands and turned away from the scientists. Never before had they witnessed Madara Uchiha in such a terrible state. "That photo… It was taken in front of the school."

"Yes, we've told you, he was seen here." Nagato said. He got off his desk seat and walked across the room scooping the photo up on the way. He examined how bad the quality was but there was no doubt. The figure was unmistakable. "Konan just said it. He can't shake you up this bad. You're going to let the great Madara Uchiha get weak in the knees from him?"

"It was taken in front of the high school." Madara snarled looking at him. Nagato looked again at the photo. The building in the background you could make out somewhat, the bricks were smaller then the colleges. "He's targeting Sasuke. I want all of you on guard and armed with whatever you can conceal behind your lab coats. Is this understood?" The room slowly nodded. "Kill him on sight."

"I'm already set!" Hidan said proudly opening his lab coat to show several guns hidden wherever he could. He laughed happily and then produced a small comic-like bomb from a pocket. He tossed it haplessly around before putting it back. "I have a knife stuck in each sock too."

"Why on Earth would you already have _that_ many weapons on you?" Kakuzu asked him back away from the man afraid he might explode.

Hidan stopped laughing and smiled pulling out a small circle necklace with a triangle. "Because I can and it empowers me! Also I like to kill things as sacrifices to my new found God, Lord…"

"You're a stupid asshole, Hidan. Do you know how much bail that would be to get you out?" Kakuzu screamed. Hidan reeled away in surprise for a second. He calmed down and laughed off the statement. "Be more considerate!"

"Why don't you all stop? We have more important things to do. Nagato, I want you to go and tell Itachi personally about this. You need to stress that I will not allow Sasuke to be hurt." Madara said getting up from his desk and pulling out a holster and a pistol from his drawer. Donning them and grabbing his jacket he turned back to Nagato. "Whatever you do, do not allow him to start a hunt for him. I don't want an all out street battle."

Nagato nodded and shoved the photo away. "Alright. What about his safety?"

"He's an adult not a child. He can take care of himself." Nagato's face cringed quickly, his brow lowering in questionable disgust. "Don't look at me like that. You don't know who he really is. I'm going to see if I can't hunt down Sasuke. I want to speak to him face to face."

"Alright…" Nagato watched as Madara walked out of the office closing the door behind him. Nagato sighed. "Come on Konan; let's go see Itachi and Kisame. Hidan, Kakuzu, go help Deidara and Sasori. Make sure you keep your coat closed HIdan."

They quickly left running down the stairs avoiding the students in the surrounding hall. Konan looked down and twitched heartlessly. "Should we get rid of Sasuke? He may pose a threat to our take over of Madara. Especially since Sasori told me he's sitting in on his lectures and tutoring his students sometimes."

"He's still a boy; he's no threat towards me. The College Board isn't that rash; they'll appoint someone in Madara's stead who has experience like mine." Nagato said stepping outside and stopping to gaze up at the slowly dimming sky. He scratched nervously at his beard. "Anyway, right now I'm trying to figure out a way of telling Itachi Orochimaru is alive and well and wandering around his little brother's school without having him freak out."

* * *

Sasuke felt Naruto collapse over next to him, both out of breath and exhausted. They lay side by side until Naruto moved his head onto Sasuke's shoulder. The Uchiha rolled over absorbing him into a tight carefully laid his head on Naruto's smiling and inhaling their scent. Naruto's head moved slightly and cuddled under Sasuke's chin. It went quiet perfectly until Sasuke's phone went off again. Naruto sighed. "Just answer it…"

"Fine," Sasuke let go of Naruto and used his arm to reach his pants on the floor. He quickly pulled his phone out and answered it. "Hey Uncle Madara."

Naruto shut his mouth tightly and just listened to what he could hear, which was Sasuke's side of the conversation. "Right now, I'm kind of busy… No, well, I'm kind of _with_ someone right now…" Sasuke stopped and laughed, Naruto didn't understand why until Sasuke moved the phone closer for him to hear what Madara was saying.

Madara had gotten the right and wrong impression from what Sasuke had said. "You have a girlfriend that's wonderful! Maybe you should invite her to dinner over at my house tomorrow night!"

"She's busy tomorrow, I'll see when will work for her though and get back to you on that. But, I am kind of busy right now, can I come and see you later tonight?" Sasuke asked pulling the phone away from Naruto. He waited a second and sighed, "Yeah, I'm coming. I'll be there in a few minutes. Bye."

Sasuke stood up from the bed and flipped on the lights, something Naruto was un prepared for. He groaned and then realized he was naked in the light, just like Sasuke. However Sasuke wasn't nervous. In fact still having what they did on himself he walked over, pulled Naruto up and kissed him. "I have to go clean up and see Madara, apparently it's somewhat important and he needs to see me in person. I'll be up in Karin's bathroom so you can use the boys' bathroom."

"When will you be back?" Naruto asked getting up grabbing his boxers. Sasuke just shrugged; he grabbed Naruto's sheet and wrapped it around him. Sasuke then grabbed his pants off the floor and shoved his phone back in them.

"I'm not sure, but I don't plan on staying with Madara for more then twenty minutes. He gets too annoying after that." Sasuke said and began heading out of the room. "If you want, you can go crawl in my bed."

"Okay." Naruto said and Sasuke walked out of the room. Naruto sighed and peeked his head out into the hall. Sasuke was already gone upstairs. He ran to the boys bathroom and shut the door quickly to the room of grey. "It's depressing in here."

* * *

Karin opened her door and her jaw dropped. She tried to say something but words escaped her so she began squawking. She had always wanted something like this to happen, and now that it was she wasn't sure what to do. "Karin, I'm borrowing your bathroom, hope you don't mind."

Sasuke walked by her and into the bathroom shutting the door. She kept babbling to herself until she walked over to the bathroom door. "What happened!? You've got to tell me everything! I want details!"

"Let's see…" Sasuke said loudly from the other side of the door. "No, go away Karin. I only need to wash up really quickly. Madara called me in for something important."

"Important? Like what?" Karin asked. Leaning in to the door she heard Jugo moving about in the next room. She stopped and quickly went to sit on her bed. "Usually you don't bend over backwards for him, why are you this time?"

"He was nervous." She heard the shower kick on and Jugo's door open. He quickly peaked his head in the door and Karin immediately explained that Sasuke barged in to use the bathroom. Jugo accepted that answer, "Just behave, okay?"

"I am." Karin said sourly. She crossed her arms and watched as the large man disappeared again.


	29. And the plot thickens

"Why are you so upset, it's my house?" Kisame asked looking at Itachi as they walked on the newly rebuilt floor in the kitchen. Itachi looked at the floor and bounced on it to hear it not creak for once. "I had to pay for everything; all you did was baby-sit for the plumber and repair man. Can you say something?"

Itachi looked up at him with a blank expression. He stared quietly for a minute before raising a hand and pointing softly over to the sink. "I had them add a garbage disposal."

"Have I ever told you how wonderful an asset you are?" Kisame said patting him on the head. He walked out into the living room and sat down on a couch. He laughed to himself as Itachi walked in. "You know, now that I have the damn thing I'm never going to use it."

Itachi stopped, saw two headlights moving across the windows and past the door. He turned his head to look at his friend, "Were we expecting company? Somebody just pulled in."

Kisame shook his head trying to think. Itachi opened the front door and looked out as the thin black car shut down in Kismae's drive way. Itachi walked out as Nagato and Konan stepped out. Nagato looked over at him, "We have to talk, now and in private."

"Come on in." Itachi said and the two followed him. Konan stopped by the door and greeted Kisame. Itachi looked back at the two. "Kisame, why don't you show Konan your new TV?"

"You should see it, flat screen. Look at her!" Kisame said happily as Nagato and Itachi walked out of hearing to the back yard. Nagato wasted no time and produced the photo of Orochimaru for Itachi. Itachi tried to take a step past him but Nagato moved in the way trying to explain gently. "This was taken outside of Sasuke's school. Madara doesn't want you to go screaming off all Highlander-like, seeing as you have a tendency to do that to people who threaten Sasuke."

Itachi stopped and suddenly got defensive of his actions. "Do you have a little brother Nagato? No, you don't. You don't also have him as your sole surviving relative and the reason you get up in the morning. I will do anything to protect him."

"Such as calm down and listen to me?" Nagato asked placing his hands on his shoulders to get him to look at him. "Madara has order him dead on sight, with Hidan loaded with weapons, I don't expect he'll be alive at the end of the week. Get a gun, watch your back and let Madara protect Sasuke."

"Madara protect Sasuke? Yeah right." Itachi said and Nagato sighed. "You know something I don't? Please share before I rip your hands off me and go find my brother."

"Madara is talking with Sasuke right now, he'll be fine. You can go shove him in a protective bubble later." Nagato said and patted his shoulder. "Now, we have other things to discuss as well. It seems Madara wants Sasuke in the movement, and you know I don't want him in there; he'll steal my place in line for the throne. You don't want him there, he'll end up going down with us."

"He'll say no, I've already talked to him. He knows what Madara's up to, everything. I let Sasori tell him." Itachi said muttering. "Is there anything else?"

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Sasuke arrived outside the gates in his new shoes and decided he would actually use the intercom system. He stuck his hand out pressing a large red button and waited for something to happen. He expected a little voice to come over the speaker but the gate just opened up and Sasuke walked in. It was about that time he vowed he would never let Suigetsu borrow his car again, he needed it.

Approaching Sasuke saw as his uncle exited the house and motioned for him to hurry up. Sasuke did and was quickly ushered inside the large mansion slamming the door behind them. Marada placed a hand on Sasuke back and lead him to the side room; Madara's personal office. As old men have a tendancy to do, it was filled with trophies, awards and taxidermy animals he bought because he didn't want to go through the hassles of shooting them himself. Madara sat down behind a large desk and offered a seat to Sasuke on the other side.

"Sasuke, there's something important I want to talk to you about, and your brother, Itachi, is probably going to tell you it in more passionate words." Madara said and set a photo of a thinly pale man down. "This used to be my top researcher some four or five years ago. We ran him off when we discovered he was using your brother for experimentations. He's quite dangerous and has a taste for messing with children."

"Pedophile?" Sasuke asked looking at the picture. "It doesn't matter, I can beat him off."

"Not pedophile, but more young boys have a good bounce back rate. He's powerful, he won't fight, he'll capture or lure you. You need to watch your back, watch your friend's backs. He's been seen at your high school. We believe he may be targeting you."

"What did he do to my brother?" Sasuke asked and Madara went quiet. He waited for a second and sighed. "I suppose if I asked Itachi, he wouldn't tell me anything either, correct? Is he that bad?"

"Yes, one of the first times I cried was actually when we found Itachi after an experiment. It was just twelve months after I got the both of you; I thought he was going to die. He was persistent enough to stay alive for you though. Don't you remember going to the college hospital to see him? It was when you first met Hoshigaki."

"The first year after my parent's died… it's kind of a blur." Sasuke confessed. "I don't remember anything from it. So… this guy, who is he and what do I need to be prepared for?"

"Is name is Orochimaru, and you need to basically get a gun and be in practice with it. You need to start carrying a weapon on you from…" Sasuke was quick as he pulled his knife out, opened it with a flick of the wrist and slammed it into the desk. Madara smiled. "Ah, I see you already do… Do they allow that at school?"

"Like I care. Anyway, too many people have them there, it's best not to bring up the knives and just ignore them. Guns on the other hand; that I can't take to school, not even carry in my car. We'll just have to hope that if he does show up, I can escape him or kill him with the knife." Sasuke said about to get up but Madara made a noise and Sasuke sat back down. "Is there something else?"

"I got a call from your principle Friday afternoon. You broke a boy's arm." Madara said and stood up to walk around the other side of the desk. He leaned on the side and crossed his arms. "The boy's parents wanted to sue the school and us, however, Deidara got down there as soon as I called him. He went through some video tapes and some stories from Itachi. Why on Earth were you being bullied for the past three years?"

"I told you people don't like me." Sasuke left his answer at that no matter what Madara said next. He ignore his guardian until he heard the words 'join the movement.' Sasuke stopped and looked at him. "What?"

"Would you like to join the movement? And not the saps working in the outer circles, my inner circle with all my researchers. You have great potential Sasuke, you just need the right place to grow in." Madara said trying to sound inspirational.

"So, I'm like a plant?" Sasuke asked. "If I am I eat way too much meat for a plant."

"Funny." Sasuke smiled taking it as a compliment. Madara patted him on the head and got up walking over to one of the book shelves. After search through for a minute or two he pulled out some textbooks and walked back over handing them to Sasuke. "I talked to your principle when he called, told him you were bored, summer classes can be allowed for high schoolers at the college. Look through these books, if you think you can handle these classes for summer, I'll get you registered and pay for everything. Then you'll be there for the meetings."

"I've been through all these, you can just enroll me." Sasuke said standing up with the weight of the four textbooks. He set them on the desk and pulled up his knife. "I'm not so keen on joining however, I think I'd like to investigate whether I could actually believe in Quantity. Give me time to think it over."

"Alright, I'll register you tonight. I'll give Itachi your schedule at tomorrow's meeting, alright?" Madara said as Sasuke picked up the books and began walking out. "Also, next time, bring over your girlfriend, I want to meet her."

"Alright." Sasuke left thinking 'Karin would enjoy posing as my girlfriend too much.'

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Itachi looked quietly at Nagato and nodded. Nagato smiled, "So you understand why this must remain quiet from everyone, especially since I can ruin everything for everyone, just like you. It's a level playing field, but now we're on the same team."

"I'm going to give you the warning I gave Sasori. If you cross me, you'll scream, but I won't let you die." Itachi said coldly. He turned towards the kitchen door and opened it up allowing Nagato to go inside first. They both arrived in the living room to find Konan and Kisame engrossed in the new television. "…_And the Samon swim up stream, leaping in bounds to their death bed amongst the falling leaves to return to the life cycle._"

"I never knew so much about fish…" Konan said shocked. As the commercials ended she looked over at Nagato. "Are we done?"

"Yes, we are… Unless you want to watch more TV. I don't have an opposition to staying." Nagato said looking over at Kisame. The blue haired man moved over on the couch so he could sit next to Konan. Nagato looked at Itachi, "Are you going to stay, visit your brother or go crazy?"

"That's really none of your business, is it Nagato?" Itachi said and grabbed his father's police jacket from off the coat rack. He barged out the door slamming it tightly behind him and began walking down the street. Dusk was setting and Itachi felt the heavy piece of weapondry against his ribs. He couldn't help it, he grabbed the holster.

"_I don't want a gun Nagato. Guns are useless." Itachi said rejecting the offering of a gun and holster. Nagato persisted._

"_I know you don't have one." Nagato said and shoved it back at him. Itachi still refused to grab it."Guns save lives."_

"_Guns take lives." Itachi slapped the gun from Nagato's hand onto the dead grass of Kisame's back yard. "I don't want it. You know I won't use it. I don't fight outside competition."_

"_It's Madara's orders until Orochimaru's dead. Especially with you and Sasuke. Remember how fond of you he was?" Nagato walked over and grabbed the gun and shoved it at Itachi. "Put it on under your shirt, keep it hidden and safe since you're not registered to carry a firearm."_

Itachi's hand clamped on it, just having it near him, he felt filthy. He sighed and heard the gothic sounds of Chopplin's Funeral March playing in a slow mood. He listen for a second before grabbing his phone and seeing 'Sasuke' on the screen. He smiled and answered. "Hello."

"Madara told me to get a gun. What the Hell is so bad about this Orochimaru guy?" Sasuke's voice asked rapidly. Before Itachi had time to say anything Sasuke continued. "Also, can you come pick me up? Madara ditched books on me and Suigetsu has my car."

Itachi stopped, "My cars at Black Bird, it'll be twenty minutes just for me to get to it. Where are you at?"

"Finch Street at Nine Mile."

Itachi scratched his head, "Um, go to 1920 Finch Street, it should be less then a block, if you can run there. I'll be by as soon as possible."

"Okay." Sasuke was going to ask who lived there but the call ended. He sighed and set his phone back in his pocket under the darkening street lamp and picked his books up and began to walk towards 1920 Finch Street with the books weighing heavily in his arms. Just what he wanted to be; cumbersome when he was going to a stranger's place. He wandered up to the small house and saw the car noting it to be familiar.

Sasuke rearranged the books on one arm and knocked on the door. A few moments later a half-agitated law student opened the door and looked down at him. "You're Itachi's kid brother aren't you?"

"He told me to come here and wait until he picks me up." Sasuke said. At the sound of his voice Deidara was pulled out of the way to show Sasori. "Oh, so this is why he told me to come here."

"Hello Sasuke, what are you doing over here?" Sasori said and let Sasuke inside. Sasori quickly took a look outside and closed the door. "It's too dangerous for you, especially you, to be wandering."

"Madara just got done telling me that. I was on my way home but these books weigh like fifty pounds each." Sasuke said setting them down on a table and rubbing his overworked arm. While he was doing that Sasori walked over and read through the titles.

"Well, then you know of the present danger?" Sasori asked and Sasuke nodded. The teacher then stopped and looked at him. "Why do you have these? We aren't using any of them until summer."

"Madara's getting me into classes over summer. He thought it would be a good way to try and press the Quantity movement on me. Of course it wasn't seeing as I tuned out half way through his speech." Sasuke said turning to him and looking over at Deidara. "So, what's up with you two?"

"Document organization by date then by alphabetization." Deidara said upset crossing his arms, "Oh the documents. All the documents would make up about fifteen filing cabinets and someone's too busy to help me with the slave labor."

"I told you, I have to get the grades in tonight so I can help you tomorrow. I only have three more papers to go." Sasori argued in his defense. "And it's only 1,353 folders, half of them are already organized."

"Still…" Deidara complained and began to walk off.

"I'll help." Sasuke said quickly. Deidara scratched his head and then waved for him to follow. Deidara took him to Sasori's spare office where the piles and piles of files were stacked about everywhere. "So we have to organize the folders."

"Yea, after we do the documents inside them. Here." Deidara said handing Sasuke a three inch folder. "Knock yourself out kid."

Sasuke sat straight down on the floor and began going through the files and set them into dates on the floor. All the while he was doing this he was skimming the documents for information. Sasuke finished the folder rather quickly then just grabbed another one.

Deidara looked at him. "You're like your brother somewhat. You're too quiet. He has this thing with being reserved unless he's really pissed, likes to play it cool. It pisses me off, he's always acting like that and he has those damn red contacts, never takes them out."

"He's got a stigmatism. He has to ware them, he just thought it be cool to special order them red. He gets those once a month, the ones you can sleep with so he doesn't have to bother with them." Sasuke said and began on the second folder. "We act like this because we went through being cold, I'm just warming up a bit faster. Killing your parents killers… It doesn't do one any good."

"I heard about that. Sorry about your parents kid, if it helps any, my father was a demolition expert, like to blow shit up. One day came home, mom was caught cheating, blew everything all to Hell. I was outside when it happened. I may have lost my parents, but the explosion was beautiful… hmm…" Deidara said reminiscing. He huffed, "I would like to blow shit up for a living, hell even fireworks but I got a scholarship that 100% covers my education in law, not engineering."

"Well, be a lawyer for a few years and save up the money to go back." Sasuke said like it was obvious.

"Well, I would, but I'd be so busy with the job, where's the time?" Deidara asked. He sat down with a few files and began shifting through. "Itachi says you're a lot more violent then he is, but so far, you haven't threatened my life once. Usually when he sees me there me and some type of unpleasant death involved in the conversation."

"You're probably hitting on a touchy subject. Some things are more sensitive to him then to me." Sasuke said finishing the second file he stacked it on to the other one and heard his phone go off. He pulled it out and looked at it; smiling warmly Sasuke answered. "Hey babe."

Deidara looked at him, "Aw, you've got a little…" Sasuke picked up a paper clip and chucked it at Deidara's head.

"I'll be home as soon as Itachi comes and gets me. I'll tell you when I get home." Sasuke said and saw Deidara coming up with an ingenious idea to pick on him involving the paperclip and a rubber band fastened between his fingers. "Love you too, bye. Ow…"

Sasuke rubbed the center of his forehead where the paper clip slapped. Deidara laughed, "That's so cute, young people in love. However, you're helping me, get back to work, you can talk to your little girlfriend later."

"Boyfriend, he's my _boy_friend." Sasuke corrected and grabbed another file. He smirked, "You are rather annoying. I think I can understand why Itachi dislikes you. Maybe it's that and that you look like a chick."

"You know what you little punk…!" Deidara stopped as the door opened up and Itachi stepped in. He waved a finger at Sasuke feeling helpless at the situation. "He's being mean to me!"

"He's mean to everyone, you need to be thicker skinned, Deidara." Itachi said and whistled at his brother. Sasuke stood up and walked out saluting. Deidara stomped his foot angrily and walked out trying to protest but Sasori was busy talking to them both about the books Madara had given Sasuke. "It looks like you'll be pretty busy for three months. I'm just going to warn you, even though you're a friend to me, you're still a student and have to do the same or better level work to earn your place in my classes."

"I know." Sasuke said and picked up the books. "That's for taking me in for a little bit."

"No problem. Just a bit of advice though, don't go out alone." Sasori said. He and Itachi nodded at each other and the two brothers left. Deidara walked out still cross and growled angrily. Sasori looked at him, "So, you don't get along with any of the Uchihas?"

"Nope, they're a lot of stuck-up pig heads. That and all of them are mean as a habit or hobby. I hope they fall into a barrel of powder and explode into a million tiny pieces." Deidara said and walked away as if he had just said the most natural thing in the world.


	30. Poor Itachi

Karin was the first to wake up that morning. She opened her door to the cool hallway and walked out in pajamas. Yawning she made her way downstairs and over to the open door to Sasuke's room. The boys had piled in there for the fact that Itachi had asked everyone to stick together. On the bed was Sasuke and Naruto cuddled in a mess of blankets. Suigetsu had somehow crawled up like a cat and was sleeping half way under the bed also in a mess of blankets. Leaning against the bed post was Itachi who had fallen asleep with textbooks in lap. Karin sighed, she was instructed just to wake Sasuke and Naruto up in the morning, and the other two would involve some struggle to keep a sleep.

Carefully creeping Karin crossed the floor and gently touched Sasuke's arm shaking it. After a few seconds a head shifted among the blankets and she saw to sharp eyes looking at her. She pulled her arm back and waved still half groggy. She yawned and turned to leave the room but found her foot caught. Karin looked down and saw a pale arm from under the bed. Karin threw her arms up making large gestures of frustration to Sasuke and pointed at Suigetsu. Sasuke simply grabbed his arm and ripped it off.

"He's not even up yet, it's just a reflex." Sasuke whispered and slowly stepped off the bed and rubbed Naruto's back. He leaned in to his head and began whispering things in his ear. Naruto smiled and sat up. Naruto followed him off the bed and together dragged the still slumbering Suigetsu out from his under-bed refuge. With effort they managed to pull him out to the hall and pull the door shut leaving Itachi sleeping.

"Won't Itachi be mad?" Naruto asked and Sasuke looked over at him. Sasuke shrugged. "He said he wanted to keep a close eye on you."

"I'm sixteen, he'll get over himself." Sasuke said and knelt down to Suigetsu. "Get up, we have to go mutilate Madara's office. To do that we have to go garage sale-ing and find some weird shit. Come on."

"You had me a mutilating." Suigetsu said and sat up slowly. He yawned and looked over everyone. "So, whose cooking breakfast? I'm starving."

"We're going out. Go get dressed, you too." He said looking at Karin. The two immediately took off to get dressed. Naruto walked over to his room looking back at Sasuke. He smiled and disappeared in his room. Sasuke looked at his door, he wouldn't be able to get his clothes without waking Itachi and instead went down to Itachi's room. Being almost the exact same size Sasuke, Itachi and he had been exchanging clothes for a while. When he went out yesterday with Naruto, it was in his Khakis.

Thankfully he had bondage pants too, part of Karin's effort. That part had failed as he saw the price tag was still on the pants. Sasuke ripped the tag off and put them on quickly. He grabbed a shirt and walked out in the hall putting it over his head. A few seconds later Suigetsu walked out than Naruto. They waited for Karin.

"Seriously, what takes her that long?" Suigetsu asked scratching her head. "She's taking forever and I'm starving. I have half a mind to go fetch her."

"Then fetch." Sasuke said pointing up the stairs. Suigetsu shrugged and ran up the stairs. Arriving at Karin's door he knocked then promptly entered. Karin stopped in the middle of putting her pants on and looked over at him somewhat in shock. Suigetsu wasn't. "What's taking so long?"

"IDIOT! You don't just barge into a woman's room!" Karin yelled and tossed a stuffed animal at him. The giant pink unicorn flying at his head was enough to distract him for a short period of time, one that gave Karin a chance to dress quickly. She walked over and grabbed her unicorn back, tossed it in her room and slammed the door shut. "If you ever come into my room unannounced again…"

"I'm still waiting for that unspeakable thing, so I think I'm safe." Suigetsu disputed rapidly. "Just get dressed faster."

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

"I still think we should beat him up. Or at least duct tape him to the wall." Karin snickered. Commandingly Sasuke pointed a finger at her; she stopped and apologized. They four crossed the street to a garage sale Sasuke had pointed out in the diner. The ad had listed a lot of things but one caught he eye: taxidermy animals. "So what are we looking for, exactly?"

"Something that will creep out Madara or at least scar him for life." Sasuke said walking into the sale and immediately looking at the animals. He found what he wanted and held it out to the group. He smiled, "What do you think?"

It was a large Persian cat that had been killed and stuffed in a mid-jump position. Suigetsu laughed, "We should get it a collar and name it too. That'll freak him out."

"Why would a taxidermy cat freak him out?" Naruto asked pointing at it. "It doesn't seem like it's that scary."

"Madara has a house full of cats. He loves the things; a dead one wouldn't make him that happy. Especially since he has a Persian… I think." Sasuke took the thing up to the table and bought it for fifteen dollars. Sasuke shoved the cat in the bag with some spray paint, gloves and silly string. "Let's go."

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

"Now, why do they shut off the cameras on Sunday?" Sugietsu asked as the four walked up the Science building stairs. "If I remember correctly, Jesus doesn't need security cameras to watch people."

"Funny." Sasuke said and pulled out his copy of Madara's office key. He stopped and turned to them pulling out the box of latex gloves. He pulled out a pair for himself before tossing the box to Naruto. "Put those on first, Madara will probably have someone search for finger prints."

"That's great, a chance of super crazy old guy after us." Suigetsu said. He took his pair put them on and beat Sasuke to the door kicking it in. Suigetsu smiled and patted Sasuke on the shoulder. Sasuke just shook his head as they entered the office. "So, this is Madara's office? Looks boring."

"It is, it's an office. Now, let's get to work so we can get out of here. Doing this can be rather dangerous, yet it needs to be done. Feel free to destroy." Sasuke said walking inside and setting the bag down he immediately cleared off the desk and set the cat up on top.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

_Young Itachi looked over his surrounding through two heavily blurred eyes. He could make out that there was a bright white light above his head and beyond that was utter darkness. He moved slightly and felt a cold metal bar running across his bare chest. He knew where he was now, he was back there again. There in the horrible place of needles and beakers, too far away for anyone to hear him wail in agony. It got to the point he stopped wailing, stopped crying and just gritted his teeth while his blood felt like it was on fire._

_He closed his eyes to the bright bulb and sighed. He heard something moving in the back ground, so he was being watched. Through his eyelids he saw a dark shadow phase over, he opened his eyes to see a pale man, hair flowing down to the table. "Well, your time waking up is becoming more rapid."_

"_Just let me go home." He pleaded softly. Orochimaru laughed and shook his head. "Please."_

"_Oh you can go home, it's just your submissiveness. It's awkward for a boy your age. Sixteen year olds are usually brash. This time, the damage is minimal, and I can see in your eyes the process is done." He said holding up a mirror for Itachi to look at himself. His blue eyes were gone, replaced by a bright red. "Beautiful aren't they? Soon you'll be fit to increase muscle mass, and you'll be one step closer to a perfect body."_

"_I just want to go home and see Sasuke…" Itachi cooed. It was pathetic enough Orochimaru had to turn away. He couldn't stand the sweetness the boy was displaying._

"_Your kindness will do no good. Maybe I should go about getting your brother, Sasuke. I heard he's a little terror."_

"_You touch him and I'll kill you!" Itachi yelled lunging against the body brace. He was helpless against the threats of the madman. Orochimaru just laughed harder until a blinking red light appeared in the corner of the room. "You will find that if you ever try this again, I will not be kind, and you will defiantly find that when Madara gets down here he will definitely not be kind."_

"_You squealed, you little wretch!" Orochimaru said almost delightedly. The doors in the back of the room burst open and two shadows entered fast. A tall figure hit Orochimaru hard and fast sending him back a few feet. "That hurt, Kisame."_

"_You don't know hurt." The man called Kisame took a step foreword but stopped when Madara laid a hand on his shoulder. Madara moved better into sight and released Itachi. He tried to sit up but fell over nearly hitting the floor. "He's had a Hell of a job done."_

"_Consider yourself out of work, Orochimaru." Madara said quickly. He laid a hand on Itachi's forehead and checked him over, "His eyes are changed. Genetically I fear."_

"_Uncle Madara, I don't feel right." Itachi said and became limp. His eyes closed and Kisame picked him up. Orochimaru slithered up the back of the room. "Upset you can't call the cops, Madara? I know everything…"_

"_You're right, I can't call the cops. Like I would anyway." Madara said and pulled out a smooth black gun and shot him twice in the chest. "Try and save yourself you bastard. Come on Kisame, let's go get him to the Science building."_

"_Right, boss." Kisame said and they left the building._

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

"_Itachi…Itachi…You're always such a heavy sleeper." Sasuke said crawling up on top of the hospital bed, he was careful to avoid the lines to the IVs. He shook his big brother's shoulder and watched as itachi's eyes opened to show the red instead of dull blue. "Wow… You got contacts, not fair! Uncle Madara! I want bright red contacts too!"_

"_Sasuke…" Itachi muttered weakly. He noted Madara behind him and figured it best to lie. He softly raised an arm and poked his brother in the forehead. "It's because I began to go blind, I needed the contacts. I want to hide them with sunglasses though, so we can go buy matching pairs this weekend. Alright, Sasuke?"_

"_Okay, just stop with the forehead poking! I'm going to bruise there one day." The little child said happily. He moved over right next to Itachi and curled up to him. "Uncle Madara I want to stay here with Itachi tonight! I'll be careful of his strings!"_

"_They're IVs Sasuke. I'm afraid Itachi needs his rest. He'll be home tomorrow." Madara said. Into the room walked the large man again, he smiled with filed teeth after looking down at the two. "Boys, this is one of my researchers, Kisame Hoshigaki. He'll be staying here with Itachi tonight to make sure he's fine."_

"_I don't understand why I can't stay! He's my brother!" Sasuke cried. He stopped when he felt a hand on his head._

"_Sasuke, we'll play later. I need to rest alright. I'll spend all of tomorrow with you. I promise." Itachi said smiling. He patted his hair gently and watched as Sasuke nodded crawling off the bed carefully. Sasuke pouted a bit and went to stand by Madara. "Good night Sasuke."_

"_Night, big brother." Sasuke said somewhat disappointed. Madara led Sasuke out of the room shutting Itachi in the room with Kisame. Kisame moved towards the bed and pulled out a small flashlight. He aimed it at an eye and saw Itachi shriek away from it. "Sensitive?"_

"_Yeah, it's somewhat painful too; it's hurting the back of my head. Everything seems off, the color, it's all dulled." Itachi said rubbing the area. _

"_That's because he went in and changed the color of your eyes somehow. I'm afraid it's irreversible, even with the possibility that we find his notes on what he did." Kisame said went to sit down on the side of the bed. He stuck out his hand. "I'm Kisame."_

"_Itachi." He said shaking the hand that was twice as big as his. "Can I get some aspirin?"_

"_We were actually going to put you on a morphine drip so we can try and reverse some of the damage from previous experiments if you can wait a few minutes. Do you know what else he tried to alter in you?" Itachi shook his head. Kisame sighed, "Then we'll just have to do some biopsies. I'll get the drip." _

_Kisame got off the bed and began out the door but was stopped by a man wheeling in a tray of instruments. The red head looked at Itachi and then to Kisame. "I brought an anesthetic; I figured it would go well to help easy the pain of the biopsies."_

"_Good idea, Sasori. I'll be back in a minute." Kisame exited the room. Itachi tried to sit up and call for him to come back, he had a question but he felt a stabbing pain in his shoulder._

"Itachi, Itachi." The Uchiha woke up to see two pale green eyes staring at him through the dimly lit room. Jugo backed off a bit removing his hand from Itachi's shoulder. "Are you alright, you were screaming bloody murder?"

"Uh, yeah." Itachi said getting a sense of where he was. He looked at the floor, it was empty, he looked up on the bed, which was empty as well. "Do you know where the boys went, Jugo?"

"No, they were gone when I got up." Jugo said standing up. He walked out half way and stopped, "I remember them saying they wanted to do something fun. They kept talking about the times we trashed the museums."

"Well, if he gets arrested he'll be safe." Itachi muttered to himself. He looked up and saw Jugo leave quietly. Without hesitation Itachi whipped out his phone and began to speed dial Sasuke. He put the phone to his ear to hear that his baby brother's phone was off. He sighed and put his phone away. He was just hoping Sasuke was O-kay.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

"That is possibly the crulest thing we've ever done. I can't believe you…" Karin said and tried to comment on the speech bubble they had spray painted on the wall for the taxidermy cat. She couldn't find the words.

"I think this is my crowning moment." Sasuke said triumphantly. He smiled and looked over at Naruto. "And this is probably your first time ever doing anything illegal."

Naruto nodded blushing slightly. Karin sighed and looked down at her watch. She quickly adjusted her glasses. "Well, let's get going. It's nearly ten."

"Yeah, I'm kind of hungry again." Suigetsu said patting his stomach. "Hey Sasuke, treat us to lunch?"

"No, I think I'm going to drag Naruto somewhere, if that's alright." Sasuke said smiling over at the blond. Naruto smiled and they grabbed hands quickly. "We'll be back later at Black Bird, just remind Itachi that I carry a knife on me, would you?"

"Yep, come on Karin." Suigetsu said and began to head out of the office. Karin stopped and hit him upside the head. Suigetsu grabbed his head and ducked away from her. "Ow… What's that for?"

"You automatically assume you get to be in charge if Sasuke not leading us! What if I want to be in charge?" Karin yelled angrily. "What makes you more qualified then me?"

"Oh, I dunno, I've known Sasuke longer." Sasuke rolled his eyes at the argument and let go of Naruto's hand to begin shoving Suigetsu and Karin out the door. "Alright, we have to go, I get it. Come on Karin."

"Fine, but next time I'm in charge." She said crossing her arms. The two quickly disappeared out of the building. Sasuke grabbed the bag of supplies and Naruto and quickly escaped. They ditched the bag down a sewer along with their gloves and Sasuke began to lead Naruto over to the street. "So, where are we going?"

"A park, you'll like it. It's quiet." Sasuke promised and they walked quickly out of campus onto a back road.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

"Where's my brother?" Itachi asked sticking out an arm preventing Karin and Suigetsu from entering the kitchen in Black Bird. Both gulped nervously at the coldness of his voice. "I know he went out with you two and Naruto when I was very clear last night. I thought I specifically told you all it was dangerous to go around by yourselves."

"He wanted to go somewhere with Naruto. He didn't say where." Suigetsu said quickly pushing in front of Karin. "I know you didn't want him to go anywhere but he went armed at least. It's Sasuke, he likes to walk around, it's his favorite hobby."

Itachi's arm lowered and the hallway went into a dead silence. Suddenly Itachi began around the corner, Suigetsu moved quickly and pinned both of them to the wall. "When Sasuke gets back, tell him I'm at the meeting."

He stalked out of the hall and down the stairs quietly. Suigetsu sighed and laughed. He turned to Karin smiling, "For a minute there, I thought he was going to do us in. Man, Itachi sure is scary sometimes."

"Where do you think Sasuke gets it from?" Karin said shoving Suigetsu's arm off her stomach and entering the kitchen. "I just hope they didn't go out and do something frivolous, Sasuke always under estimates the need for anything."

"Knowing Sasuke, it's completely frivolous to us." Suigetsu sighed. "Anyway I was thinking…"

"I have to go play with little Karin." Karin abruptly said and quickly retreated upstairs. Suigetsu shrugged and began to raid the fridge. kly disappeared out of the ie sna dNaruto adn eared out of the building. , would you?"


	31. Fox Attack!

As they walked along it, they could tell the paved road was quite old and worn; time had gotten to it as it does everything else. In the cracks of it moss was growing up between with the occasional weed or wild flower. Naruto and Sasuke made sure they avoided them listening to the loose road under their feet. Naruto had never been out there before; to him it was like they were going camping. On one side was a huge field of hay and to the other weeds taller then they were.

"Are you sure this is still part of the college, Sasuke?" Naruto asked looking around to see the field end to a large dairy farm. "It seems like we went out into the country or something. I mean, look there's cows."

"I'm positive and I know there are cows. This land belongs to the agriculture and agri-science departments. A little farther down on the right is a 3 acre plot that belongs to the biology labs, nobody uses it basically though." Sasuke said pointing down to some trees. "They kind of just let it go and it turned into a retreat for people."

"So now it's a park?" Naruto asked as they made it past the dairy farm to be surrounded by open fields. Sasuke nodded and pulled Naruto over to the side dragging him back into the high grass between two trees. They waided through high grass for a couple minutes before coming to an opening. They stopped by the edge and Sasuke let Naruto take in the view for a minute. "Holy crap… This is, it's amazing."

Naruto observed the trees for a second, how only the tops were lit up by the sunlight, how they made the air smell sweet and thick so it consumed your lungs. He took a large breath in through his nose letting it sink into his smile. "I wish a place like this was closer to Black Bird."

"Yeah, but then again do you really want druggies here?" Sasuke asked and gripped his hand tighter and began walking through the trees. "That's only the beginning, wait until you see the lake."

"There's a lake here?" Naruto blushed. He automatically began thinking of their bodies in water. He stopped frozen in thought until he felt a tugging.

Naruto woke up out of his erotic trance to nearly fall over. Sasuke turned and looked at him; Naruto suddenly felt embarrassed and looked the part. "You alright Naruto?"

"Yeah, just dazed off for a minute." Naruto said trying to laugh it off. Sasuke smiled and accepted his answer and they kept moving until they found a small grassy area right next to a small lake. Sasuke dropped Naruto's hand and sat down by a tree. He leaned against it and sighed completely relaxed. "It smells like fish."

"Yeah, were by a lake." Sasuke said and pointed to it without opening his eyes. He smirked and looked over at Naruto with his pale blue eyes. "Are you going to stand there all day?"

"It's a possibility." Naruto said smiling and began to walk over. As soon as he was close enough Sasuke lunged out an arm and grabbed him. He sat Naruto between his legs facing the lake and wrapped his arms loosely around his shoulders.

"Your possibility is now zero percent." Sasuke smiled. He pulled him in tighter and laid the side of his face against Naruto's hair. He nuzzled to it carefully. "Now is about the time I'd say something really sweet and meaningful, however, I don't have anything."

"Unprepared?" Naruto asked not moving his head. He felt Sasuke shake his head.

"My mind blanks out here, you kind of just lose all thought staring at the lake. I prefer not to think out here anyway, it takes away from the sense of being here. Not enough people can just watch nature and just be in awe at their everyday surroundings anymore, like Madara, they've lost sight of what beauty is and create monsters." He took in the lake and laughed somewhat. "I sound like Victor."

"Who?" Naruto asked.

"Victor Frankenstien, except, I'm not guilty of creating monsters." He would have said 'or being one' but he didn't. He just let it slip into the back of his head somewhere until his mind was empty of whatever guilt the sentence had inspired.

Naruto smiled trying to do the same and just absorb the scenery. His mind took a little longer to blank, if it ever did at all. He took some time to contemplate, just simply though. His train of thought never quite reached its destination. It either stopped completely or disappeared.

Both turned their heads suddenly as they heard a rustling in the bushes. Sasuke slowly moved his arm of Naruto and reached down into one of his lower pants pockets grabbing something cold. They waited for a second before a small black nose pushed through the bushes. It was shortly followed by a small red head with two beady little black eyes. Naruto smiled, "It's a fox, a baby fox."

The small creature continued out and walked over to Sasuke's shoe. The fox began sniffing happily then cutely walked over and sniffed Naruto's shoe. Sasuke smiled removing his hand from his pocket. "At least he's friendly."

Naruto patted his lap and got the fox to crawl up and sit on his leg staring at him. Naruto smiled and turned to Sasuke, "Can he come home with us?"

"He's a wild animal." Sasuke said looking it the fox. It turned its head and stared at Sasuke. The Uchiha sighed and scratched his head. "Foxes aren't meant to be domesticated. That smell won't go away, and we don't have a yard. It'd be better for him to stay here. Also… it's a baby. The mom's around here somewhere so I suggest you put him down."

"Awe… I guess you would end up eating little Karin." Naruto set the fox down and watched as it walked over to the lake and began drinking. "He's just so cute."

"He's better out here." Sasuke said and watched as the pup walked back over to them and began yelping loudly. "Wonder what his problem is?"

There was suddenly a low growling noise from the bushes and a full grown mother fox walked out and over to her baby. She sniffed it and turned her head towards the boys growling lower. "Sasuke, I think we should get out of here."

"Ditto." Sasuke agreed. They both backed up a bit then stood moving away from the fox. Within seconds both were running out through the trees the fox on their heels. "You had to pick it up, didn't you!"

"It was cute!" Naruto defended and they ran out into street and stopped to catch their breaths. They looked at each other and hand one of those uncomfortable laughs, neither was sure what was funny about the situation. They waited a minute and began down the road. "How long of a walk is it home?"

"Hour, I think. The walk's good for us." Sasuke said and watched as the fields moved softly in the wind. He smiled and held out a hand turning his head gently towards Naruto. The blonde noticed and took hold. "You know any good traveling stories?"

"Traveling stories?" Naruto considered it and shook his head. "Never really traveled anywhere."

"Do you want to hear about Paris, and this psycho boy that followed me around that week?" Naruto shrugged. "Not sure if you want to or not, it's funny."

"I guess. Why's it funny?"

"Because he followed me around and Madara doesn't know that I like boys." Sasuke said as if it were hilarious. "So Paris, it's really nice first off, but there was this boy, he was like maybe two years older then me and he followed me around all day, everyday. Thing was Madara noticed him so whenever he'd show up I'd have to do some stupid thing you'd see in a cartoon."

"Oh you mean to distract Madara?" Naruto asked. "Like pointing and shouting 'look over there!'"

"Actually I did that a lot. Thankfully there was always something to point at. Madara thinks I like Mimes nows." Sasuke said and smiled rubbing his head. "He got me this, um, I don't know what'd you call it but it's this wind-up mime thing, and you turn the key in its back and his hands move covering his face. It's actually kind of cute."

"I think mimes are creepy. They don't talk and stuff." Naruto said not getting out his wording correctly. It didn't bother Sasuke at all.

Soon enough they were back on paved roads with the half empty streets of the campus. Sasuke wasted no time in getting them off campus and over to Black Bird, knowing that their presence would be bad in the sight of half of the Quantity members.

They arrived at Black Bird to find it strangely quiet. The house seemed to have reverted back to its original state of no inhabitants. The basement was deserted, no one in the kitchen or front rooms and nothing on the next floor. The two boys stopped on the second floor trying to think where their friends went when they heard Karin start to go off, supposedly on Suigetsu.

Naruto sighed and began up the stairs. "Where are you going? They're probably just having a gerbil fight." Sasuke asked.

"I know, but don't we interject all the other times?" Naruto raced up the stairs with Sasuke decidedly following directly behind. They made it to the second floor to see Karin, Jugo and Suigetsu seated in a circle attempting to play a card game. Karin stopped after a few seconds when she realized she was being stared at. She turned to them and pointed at Suigetsu. "He…"

"Don't care." Sasuke said quickly. He looked over them quickly and noted they were playing poker. "I just wanted to see if Suigetsu was behaving, well, it looks like you're all fine. You are behaving, correct Suigetsu."

"Yea." Suigetsu said staring at Sasuke. The Uchiha looked upset. "Yo, you okay Sasuke? You look like… wrong."

"That's a horrible way of putting it!" Karin said quickly. "What he means to say is you look a little sick, were you out in the sun too long? You're a lot tanner too."

"Yea, it gave me a headache. Keep it down; I'm going to take a nap." Sasuke said and turned around walking past Naruto grabbing his hand. He kept walking and just dragged the blond along. As he was pulled Naruto waved at them quickly than figured he'd pay attention to the stairs. He moved quickly after Sasuke until they hit Sasuke's door. The Uchiha turned around and lean his head on Naruto. He was trying to let the warmth he felt inside from Naruto override the headache and overall blah feeling from the sun.

Naruto set his hand gently on top of Sasuke's head and stroked the spiky black hair carefully. "Why don't you go lay down? It'd probably do some good for your head."

"I know." He said in a small voice. He broke away from Naruto, smiled at him and entered his room opening the door to the pitch black. He took two steps back into it. "I'll see you later."

"Yep." Sasuke shut the door smoothly; he didn't want to seem like he was shutting Naruto out just because a headache. He sighed and walked over to his bed. He flopped down pulling the gun out of his pocket and tossed it to the floor. Sasuke just really wanted to go to sleep, get the ache out of his head. Right now, he'd even prefer to feel numb as long as it didn't feel like there was banging sounds everywhere and someone shining a flashlight directly into his pupil.

His head was still pounding so he rolled over and covered it with his pillow. He soon fell asleep to the lull of his own pulse going though his skull.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

Itachi Uchiha was still rubbing his face trying to wake up. He hoped the walk or the two cups of coffee he had bought on the walk would have woken his. He was wrong however. Half dazed he crossed the street onto the campus scratching at his ribs. He felt something hit his knuckles, it surprised him until he remembered the holster. He had a gun, a weapon. He was bothered by it and grew angry until he finally woke up enough to rationalize that he was the wielder and he could chose not to use it.

"Yo, Madara." Itachi called walking up to the science building to see Madara approaching in his Sunday best. Itachi always thought Madara going to church was hypocritical, and had said so on several occasions, but apparently there were a lot of cute women there he liked to stare at. He was waiting for Madara to thank God for something like that, just so he can call blasphemy on him.

"Itachi, what are you doing here this early?" Madara asked stumped by his appearance. He thought for a second and smiled. "This must be about Orochimaru's appearance, isn't it?"

"Yes, I wanted to see about getting some better surveillance around West View… And having Sasuke move back in with you. He doesn't get how dangerous Orochimaru is." Itachi said shoving his hands back into his pockets. "Not that he gets how dangerous you are."

"Putting me in the same category as that traitor, not very nice." Madara said slowly and began to head up the stairs to the building. Madara shrugged the notion off. "But yes, Sasuke moving in with me does sound like an appropriate precaution, of course, he rather doesn't like my mansion. I don't see why he hates is, it's got an in-ground pool, a huge garage…"

"He doesn't like the color of it." Itachi said blatantly. He grabbed the door and held it open for Madara. "He'd probably like it better if you repainted it a normal color, like blue or white or something."

"Normal color? It came that way; it's its original paint. Why fix something that's not broken?" Madara asked walking past him and looking up to see his office doorframe. He stopped and waited for Itachi to come in and silently pointed. Both pulled guns and pointed them down at the ground as they steadily began up the stairs towards Madara's office.

They went to opposite sides of the door and Itachi entered first to find the darkened office empty. He let his gun fall and turned on the light to see the chaos. He smirked and let out a small noise trying to hold back his laughter. 'So this is what Sasuke was up to.'

"What the…" Madara said coming in looking at wreak of his office. He dropped the gun on the floor and began looking around. He saw the broken door, all his books scattered around, and something awkward on his desk. "The… This is disgusting."

"It's a pretty cat at least." Itachi said finding it funny. He was thankful he could pull off cold at important times or else he'd be screwed here. Itachi moved in line with the cat and read the meow mix theme song off the board. "Whoever did this has a sense of humor at least."

"Humor, this is an abomination! Get somebody! Call the cops!" Madara yelled and quickly picked up his gun handing it to Itachi. "Hide this before you call them and tell everyone to meet me in room 212B. I have to go make arrangements."

"Arrangements?" Itachi asked walking out the door. He stopped and waited.

"Yea, someone wanted to come in and tell me something important and so I decided I'll just have them tell it during the meeting. I'll call them, you go call everyone one else." Madara said pulling out his cell phone and a piece of paper.

Closing the door Itachi laughed and made it down the stairs and outside until he burst out laughing. He kept it up until he heard someone and saw Sasori and Deidara approaching. "Laughing gas?"

"Go see Madara's office. Just don't laugh in front of him." Itachi said calming down. The two looked at each other and quickly rushed inside. Itachi quickly dialed Kiamse and eagerly paced in front of the Science Building. "Hey, come in early. The Black Birds trashed Madara's office and it's hilarious."

"Trashed? What do you mean, they dumped the garbage everywhere or just the trash Madara thinks is important?" Kisame asked.

"No, it's destroyed. Spray paint, silly string, and even a stuffed cat singing the Meow Mix song. Hurry, I have to call the cops." Itachi said checking the time.

"Alright, I'll be there in a second." The phone hung up and Itachi dialed the cops watching as Nagato and Konan pulled up with Hidan following in the car behind. "We're in 212B today."

"Why?" Nagato asked looking at him.

The police answered on Itachi's cell phone. "Hello, this is Itachi Uchiha, I'm calling from the Science hall on campus; vandals have destroyed my uncle's office. Spray paint and everything over the desk and files."

"Oh." Nagato said simply and began in with Konan while Itachi was told it'd take a few minutes to get there by the nearest unit. He hung up and looked over at Hidan. "What?"

"Honestly, how happy did it make you to see Madara's office fucked up?" Hidan asked smirking. "I know you hate him."

"Very, I actually had to keep from laughing. Go see for yourself." Itachi said and walked as he walked by.


	32. A Friend's Betrayal

Madara was upset he didn't have a desk to sit on, 212B was one of Sasori's classrooms and he never used desks. He was forced to pull a chair out and seat it at the front of the room. He looked out at all the people, minus one and smiled. "We have a guest speaker today."

"This is a teamwork seminar is it?" Hidan yelled angrily. He suddenly leaned foreword and slapped Deidara in the back of the head. "I told you to be more team oriented you stupid bitch, you always have to be fuckin' menstrual!"

"I'm a guy!" Deidara screamed standing up and turning around. "A guy, I have a dick! How come I'm the only one who gets ragged on for being slightly more girly looking, have you seen Itachi?"

"Don't drag me into this." Itachi commented, it obviously wasn't heard. Deidara was still busy yelling.

"Why do you all count me as a girl over him?" Deidara asked to the entire room. They all went quiet. "Well?"

Hidan scoffed at him then began laughing very loudly. "His voice is deep for starters. He doesn't scream like a little bitch when insulted."

"Why am I always involved with this?" Itachi asked turning to Kisame who was seated next to him. Kisame just shrugged.

"He doesn't have a really soft face either; Itachi's face is more ridged." Konan noted allowed.

Itachi decided to hide his face in the desk and wrapped his arms around it. Sasori leaned foreword, "I'm sorry about Deidara, he's just really, really sensitive about these types of things. I'll lose him on the way home."

"Yea, men have a stronger chin, something that protrudes a bit more." Nagato agreed while rubbing his own facial hair. "Deidara's chin barely sticks out."

"Just ignore them, anyway, it's Deidara's fault. You want me to kill him later?" Kisame asked, Itachi just shrugged. They all heard a loud whistling and looked down to see Madara glaring. "Alright, Deidara is a bit girly, but he is a guy and that's that."

"Thank you." Deidara said and sat down crossing his arms. Hidan snubbed him and turned away.

"Now, we have a guest waiting in another room, and she's volunteered to speak with us about something important, a real threat to us she says." Madara said seriously and the room went quiet. "Now, since she's a girl, a few rules. No swearing, stabbing, shooting…"

"Behave, right?" Kisame asked leaning his head on his hands. "Or basically not be ourselves?"

"Exactly. I want this to go smoothly, she could be a great asset to us in recruiting and everything." Madara said and got up from his seat. He walked over to the door and opened it calling out into the hall where Kakuzu had her. Madara stepped back and allowed them in; Kisame began sweating and grabbed Itachi's arm making him look up. Itachi looked down at the small pink haired girl and turned to Kisame. Their expression was the same, 'oh shit.'

"I've seen that girl before, at the bistro." Sasori nudged Deidara and he nodded. They noticed the look on Itachi and Kisame. "What is it? Is she going to be trouble?"

"Possibly, though I can't say for sure. She's a high schooler, she goes to school with Suigetsu and Sasuke." Kisame responded just as quietly. "This could possibly be very bad for us. Everyone knows how much Sasuke rags on Madara, you need to tell him to shut his mouth every now and again."

"Like I have any conscious control of him." Itachi muttered back and watched as the girl greeted Madara. Madara stepped foreword, "Everyone, this is Miss Sakura Haruno. Miss Haruno is a third year at the high school. Say, you know my nephew, Sasuke."

"I do, but he's not in any of my classes." Sakura said not loosing her grin. She turned to all of them and waved very friendly. "Hello everyone."

"That girl, she was with that blond kid Sasuke hangs around." Sasori said edging closer to Itachi. "Have you heard anything about it?"

"No, but if she hangs around Naruto, we should be fine." Itachi said back. Sasori shook his head. "What?"

"I think they were arguing about Sasuke, I don't think she likes him." Sasori sat back and just watched the girl carefully. "Just in case we need to escape, grip your guns."

"Always thinking ahead." Kisame smirked and shoved his hand into his pocket. Itachi's gun was in the holster under his shirt, he couldn't grip it without being seen. Kisame understood this and still but still looked at him. "Shove you're arm up your shirt or something."

"It'll be fine, Kisame."

"I came here today because I know something you didn't which is causing you problems, and weirdly enough, causing me problems as well." Sakura said. She pulled out her phone and began pressing buttons. "Now, for some time now, I've been working for quality, however, this isn't for or against them. I don't think it's nice to play both sides of the field.

"Here." Sakura said and handed the phone to Madara. She folded her arms and just waited in front of them. She glared up at the desks with people in them, she recognized Sasori from the shop and Itachi as Sasuke older brother.

Madara slowly gripped the phone tighter and tighter. There was a certain amount of confusion at first. The thought of 'why the Hell am I looking at gays making out' came up and linger for a said amount of time, then to the sudden realization of that one of those gay was Sasuke. His free hand clasped his jaw covering his mouth so none would see his face. He slowly distinguished the blond was the one he had sent Zetsu to kill, it was the boy from Quality.

It slowly fit into place, every piece to every question fit perfectly. Sasuke was betraying him, however he didn't have the knowledge to do so, so somebody must be. Somebody close, somebody who'd want to protect him. Madara smiled and lowered his hand. He gave the phone back to Sakura and thanked her. He laughed for a second and sat down in the chair laughing.

"I had no clue Sasuke was gay…" Itachi stopped and wondered what had been shown on the phone. Madara crossed his leg and looked up at Itachi shaking his head. With a swift motion he pulled a small gun from his sock and aimed it at Itachi. He was met by guns from Kisame and Sasori. They were met by a gun from Nagato and Kakuzu, and not surprisingly a magnum by Hidan.

Happily Deidara pulled out a Desert Eagle and pointed it straight at Hidan and smiled. Hidan quickly looked between the guns and frowned while Deidara began laughing. "Haha, mine's bigger."

"So, Itachi, you're being a pacifist again I see. Would you mind explaining why you were telling Sasuke Quantity secrets." Madara asked calmly.

"Go to Hell, I'll tell you when I get down there." Itachi said and got up and walked down by the door. He stopped and turned to Sakura. "This isn't about Quantity, not even about Sasuke is it? This is about Naruto, right?"

"He was mine first." Sakura said upset. She gripped her hands together tightly and looked like she might attack Itachi herself. "Naruto loved me, I don't know exactly when, but he stopped because your stupid ass little brother took him from me. He loved me. Naruto's just going to end up hurt like he did a few years ago when Sasuke beat him into the ICU!"

"We're you the one who took that picture or just the one who passed it around? Either way, if you're trying to be his girlfriend, it's a pretty shitty way of doing it. I'm pretty sure he could have forgiven you for doing that, and for attacking Sasuke yesterday. You are brash, I suspect you did it. As I understand, that's why you're thumbs wrapped up, he broke it." Sakura shoved her hand behind her back. Itachi shook his head. "I'm not sure this level of betrayal is forgivable. And just for you're information, you're wrong about them.

"Sasuke loves him, in fact the first thing he did was hurt Naruto, left a huge black bruise on his arm. Sasuke didn't want him around because of that ass who invited you here. He tired to get rid of Naruto, but it didn't work. Kisame, Sasori, Deidara, let's go." Itachi said and the three moved carefully out of the room keeping guns up with Itachi leading the way. As soon as the door closed they practically leapt down the stairs and rushed out of the building. "You two, follow us to Raven street."

"And if we lose you, just look for my hummer, you can't miss it down there." Kisame said and branched off of them to go to his huge vehicle. He was the first out and disappeared. Itachi got into his wreaked car and took off only after he saw Sasori and Deidara were in a car. He drove out of the parking lot quickly and exited campus as fast as he could with the two keeping pace.

Itachi normally drove distracted, this time he drove very distracted. He was working on extracting his cell phone from his back pocket along with what he would type. Running a red light, he crossed to the other side of town that was still abandoned by the church goers and flipped his phone open. He typed 'cell only, be careful' and sent the transmission. He closed his phone only to have it ring. Sighing he opened it. "Hello?"

"You drive like a freakin' idiot! Keep your eyes on the road, dumb ass!" Deidara shouted angrily. "I know you're upset but man… What do you mean he always drives like this, how the Hell did he get a license?"

"Bye." Itachi said loudly hanging up. He laughed to himself, which made him feel a bit better. Without out hesitation Itachi kept running red lights and sped just to get Deidara upset. He was half hoping he would call back. Kisame had beaten them all to Black Bird which surprised Itachi. The speed limit was one of the few things he followed. He was just standing there, leaning against his hummer waiting for them to show up. "'Bout time."

"How fast were you going?" Itachi asked getting out. "Must have been at least fifty."

"I dunno… Eighty, eighty-five." Kisame said shrugging. He watched as Deidara and Sasori nervously walked over. "What, you two scared of some druggies and hookers?"

"Welcome to Black Bird." Itachi said offering a hand to display the entrance house. "Come on, let's get inside before some of the weirder druggies decided to say hi."

Itachi followed Kisame inside and kept checking back to make sure they were right behind him. As they stepped down into the basement of the entrance house they could hear laughing on the other side of the door. Kisame opened the door and the laughter stopped. "Oy, I need to get this game called Harvest Moon. Naruto says it's completely addictive."

"What's it rated?" Kisame said walking in to find Suigetsu, Karin, Jugo and Naruto encircling the table playing cards. "I told you I'm not buying anything rated M that I won't play with you."

"It's not over teen, I can guarantee that." Naruto said and folded his hand. "I suck at this game."

"You get that from Sasuke, I won seven hundred dollars off him once." Jugo said and watched as Itachi walked in with Sasori and Deidara. "Did something happen?"

---------( blAck bIrd)---------

"So, you have no intention of helping us further." Madara asked of Sakura. She had been silent the entire time, her bottom lip chewed on so she could digest Itachi's words. "He's persuasive, isn't he. You're having doubts, it happens, however, I believe your right. Sasuke is capable of a lot, trust me, I know."

"Is Naruto in danger?" Sakura asked nervously. Madara shrugged, "Is there really a chance he could get hurt?"

"I have no idea what the state of their relationship is but I know Sasuke. He had a man's jaw ripped off the other day. Just ripped right out of his face, I wouldn't know if he is in danger now, but it is a possibility." Madara said shoving the gun away. "I heard from his principle, he just went and broke a boys arm for no purpose Friday. I'd defiantly worry."

"Um… I have to go home now." Sakura said nervously.

"Please, allow Konan to escort you. I'd hate for you to go out alone." Madara said sweetly. Konan stood up and smiled walking to the front. Konan placed a hand on her back and lead her out of the room. "I think we have an informant."

"For a minute there, I thought you were actually giving a damn about someone else." Nagato said. He got up and began walking out. "I'll be back in a minute."

He closed the door behind him and walked a few steps out of the window and pulled out his phone and checked his messages. 'cell only, be careful' was written. Nagato shoved his phone back in his pocket and re-entered the room. "Hey, my mom's sick I have to go."

"I didn't know you had a mother." Madara said and waved him off.

---------( blAck bIrd)---------

"Where's Sasuke?" Itachi asked looking over at Naruto. "He's not out is he?"

"No, he got sun sick. He's upstairs sleeping." Naruto said and watched as Itachi stalked off. "What happened?"

"Some little girl with bright pink hair, that's what. I assume you know her." Kisame said sitting down at the table next to Suigetsu. Naruto's head dropped rapidly. "She thinks Sasuke stole you from her, she was kind of messed up in the head. Anyway, told everything basically, Madara figured out Itachi was involved and we got dragged in and so here we are."

"Why does the day always end up so badly?" Naruto asked as he received a new hand of cards. "It always starts out good."

"Oh, this is Sasori and Deidara, they've been working with me and Itachi on taking Madara down." Kisame said; the black birds passed a few hellos at them and continued. "And this is Jugo, his technically daughter Karin. This is my ward Suigetsu, and then that's Sasuke's boy friend Naruto, formerly of Quality. That's everybody."

Simultaneously all four playing groaned and tossed in their hands. "Nobody had anything?"

"We're all terrible. Doesn't that make everyone feel better?" Suigetsu joked and smiled. They sulked a bit more.

"Do you want to play cards with us, it's poker." Jugo asked looking at them. "No bets currently."

"I'm in." Deidara said and moved in between Karin and Jugo. "Come on, Sasori, we've nothing better to do but be killed by Madara."

"I suppose." Sasori said walked over next to Naruto. "Would you mind moving over some?"

Naruto quickly moved over and everyone was dealt five. Within seconds everyone but Kisame and Suigetsu folded. The two smiled at each other. Suigetsu thought carefully and pulled out a dollar. "Dollar bets, keep up."

"Fine." Kisame said and pulled out his wallet to toss in two bucks. Suigetsu quickly raised it to three. They seemed to keep betting until Suigetsu ran out of money. Kisame understood this and simply met the bet instead of beating him out. He showed his hand and smiled. "Full house, and not the TV show either."

"Well, damn." ush, spades. r, "cards downa nd ghed, "nstead of beating him out. Suigetsu looked down at the cards and sighed. He set the bottom of his cards down and flipped his hands over and suddenly smiled. "Just kidding. Royal flush, spades. I win."

"At least their fighting with money this time." Karin sighed and leaned her head on her hand. She suddenly felt eyes starring at her and turned her head to see Suigetsu glaring. "What is it Lobster?"

"What's that about? We can't bet with out you finding someway to put me down. If Sasuke were up you'd know he'd tell you to behave!" Suigetsu said and crossed his arms. "You need to stop being such a bitch."

"Are they always like this?" Sasori asked quietly turning to Naruto. He nodded slowly. They watched as Kisame slapped Suigetsu upside the head telling him not to swear.

Jugo sighed and shook his head and quickly slapped Karin upside the head as well. She stopped and looked at him shocked. "Apologize, Karin. You know you started the argument."

"I'm sorry… Sorry that you're so stupid." Karin grumbled. The argument began again and both guardians shook their head. The only one truly enjoying it was Deidara who was laughing through it. Naruto grumbled, "They're just arguing because they like each other."

Both Karin and Suigetsu stopped in mid yelling and looked at each other. They blushed and turned away from each other quickly denying it.

---------( blAck bIrd)---------

He was his little brother; he had walked in on everything imaginable over the course of sixteen years. However when Itachi waltzed into Sasuke room and flipped the light on, he wasn't expecting to see a gun lying in the middle of the floor. A sudden bit of anger set in, from where Itachi didn't know. He walked past it grabbed Sasuke's shoulder and shook him. "Why do you have a gun?"

"Uh…" Sasuke said shrugging his brother off his shoulder. Itachi shook more fiercely and woke Sasuke up this time. Sasuke glared at the set of red eyes. "What is it?"

"You have a gun on your floor. Guns are dangerous." Itachi preached. Sasuke groaned and shrugged his brother off yet again. "Listen, Madara knows. He knows everything. None of us are safe."

"Wait, what? Knows, how?" Sasuke asked sitting up and focusing on his brother. "Who squealed, was it that blond guy that doesn't like us?"

"No, it wasn't Deidara, he's on our side. That pink haired girl you told me about the other night, the one who you broke her finger in a fight. She went and told." Itachi said and patted Sasuke's leg. "I brought Sasori and Deidara over."

"More people…" Sasuke scoffed.

"Hey, they needed to get out. They were in just as much danger." Itachi said and placed a hand on Sasuke's head. "You couldn't keep out like I told you too. If you had been separated from me and the movement you'd still be doted upon by crazy cat man."

Sasuke laughed and then sighed deeply. "Like I'd be separated from you. I mean without a good example I wouldn't know what dorky truly is."

"Shut up, you're just mad because that supermodel asked me out." Itachi said and pushed him a bit.

"I still can't believe you told her no." Sasuke got up and they began out of his room. "That has to be the dumbest thing ever done."

"She's not my type." Itachi said and quickly walked off without another word. Sasuke just shrugged and followed quietly.


	33. Chinese Food

**Hey guys/girls, more audience participation! I need a city (in a country other than USA) where you think a person would be hidden easily. The more exotic the better! :) Aki

* * *

**

There was a lot of noise coming from the basement before them. Stalking in, the Uchiha brothers entered the room to find everyone around the table laughing as Suigetsu kept talking about his swim practice. Apparently, you could do suicides in the water and it was hilarious to watch. Sasuke knelt down quietly behind Naruto and leaned on his back wrapping his arm around him like he was a horribly soft plush pillow. Naruto turned to him and smiled. Sasuke didn't feel like smiling, instead he just cuddled his head closer to the blond. "Suigetsu."

Sasuke's voice cut through the laughter like a bad omen. All the head's turned to him, silent in worry, and just stared. "I want you and Karin to take my car and pull out all the money in my account and than pick up some lunch. And stop by the corner stop and get some asprin, my head is killing me."

Sasuke removed an arm and reached into his pocket pulling out a debit card. He held it across the table and watched as Suigetsu took it. Both he and Karin stood up quickly and left through the door. As it closed everyone went silent; Sasuke had reminded them they were now in hiding.

"Thanks for reminding us we're all stuck here. You're no fun, just like you brother. Always pointing out the negative, always being so realistic." Deidara said sticking his tongue out. Sasuke and Itachi just stared at him emotionless, which pissed the blond off even more. "Stupid emotionless bastards."

"Don't call Sasuke that." Naturo growled in a low voice. Sasuke lifted his head, shocked, and looked at Naruto. He was more focused on Deidara than an angry watch dog whose space was just invaded.

Deidara got the hint and backed up a bit. "Calm down I was just kidding. I meant it was a joke, I didn't actually mean it."

"Next hand." Jugo said quickly gathering up all the cards on the table. He hoped it would be enough to distract the two. He quickly shuffled and passed out hands to everyone still sitting at the table. They proceeded as normally tossing in cards and receiving their new ones. In the end, everyone had kept their hands. Jugo laid his down. "Three jacks."

"I'm out than." Deidara said and tossed his hand down. He turned over towards the lurking Uchiha, "Hey, where's the bathroom?"

"It's upstairs, come on." Itachi said and turned towards the stairs. Deidara sighed and followed Itachi out of the room complaining. Naruto tossed in his hands of a pair of aces. Sasori calmly set down his hand showing all four kings. "That seemed almost too easy."

"That happens, just a lucky hand." Jugo said picking in all the cards. "Once you get the big group and start betting… That's when you start to sweat."

"We need a new game; we play poker all the time." Kisame grunted. "Hey, I'm going to go to the store and pick up a board game, anyone _excluding Sasuke_ want to come?"

"I'll come; I have to get some stuff." Jugo said standing and stretching. "You guys need anything, well, anything under ten bucks?"

"I kind of want a bottle of cherry syrup, the kind that goes on ice cream, if you wouldn't mind." Sasuke said pouting a bit. Jugo nodded and he and Kisame left beginning to discuss Karin and Suigetsu liking each other. Sasuke laid his head back on Naruto and cuddled up to him sighing.

"You never told me." Sasori said looking over at Sasuke. The Uchiha looked at him quickly not understanding. He shrugged and gave a questioning 'hm.' "I had no clue you were gay."

"It's not something I share publicly." Sasuke muttered.

"Yes, the stupid part of society likes to beat on us, don't they?" Sasori smiled. Sasuke stopped and glared, suddenly he got it. "They tried to convert me to God when I was your age, they even tried to banish the demon in me… It's why I'm a scientist."

* * *

"Wonder if he'll have to get rid of the car. Isn't Madara paying for everything?" Suigetsu asked as they pulled up to an ATM and he shoved the card in. "It would defiantly suck."

"Everything's in Sasuke's name except the insurance. Itachi could put him on his coverage." Karin said as she crossed her arms and looked out the other window. She sighed, "It does suck though. We're going to have to protect Sasuke now, instead of him protecting us."

"Hey," Suigetsu said pointing a finger at her, "Don't get so down. Think about it, Sasuke's got to stay in Black Bird all the time now. You have someone to play with Little Karin when you're gone, and he can finally get his ass up and learn how to cook."

"He can cook... A little bit." Karin said making Suigetsu stop. He gave her a get real look and continued hitting buttons. She sighed giving in the fact Sasuke was a failure in the kitchen. "Okay, so he can cook microwave meals."

"Well yea, we don't have a stove. We need to get one though. Just show up with one. 'Oy Sasuke, we got you a present!' He'll love that." Suigetsu heard the machine process and saw a huge pile of cash pop out. "So Lunch… How many do we have to get?"

"Um, four…five, seven, nine. Nine. Let's go get Chinese food, we haven't had it forever. We can get egg rolls, orange chicken…" Karin stopped to see Suigetsu just staring at her. "What, I like Chinese food."

"I got that, but if you going to name off everything you want I may need to take a bathroom break." He said and pulled the car out from the bank to the street.

"I think I got that unspeakable thing." Karin grinned evilly.

"I will go and sleep under Kisame's bed then, I know you won't go in there." Suigetsu said happily and saw the Chinese restaurant and pulled in. "Don't say…"

"I win!" Karin said happily getting out. She stayed that way until a thought struck her. "Do you realize how many orders of crab Rangoon we'll need? We'll need a cart to wheel it out to the car."

"Yep, let's go Karin." Suigetsu locked the car and began walking away. She was about to protest following his orders but went against making a scene.

* * *

It went into a comfortable silence that Sasuke came to adore. He had been around someone the entire time who understood him, someone who had gone through it too, someone like him. He smiled and peeled himself off Naruto and turned to Sasori. "I would have never guessed, especially since you have the wedding ring on."

"Yes, it keeps everyone from asking. And every time they do, I just lie about some accident, mutter and walk away like I'm sad. It's a very good cover, plus, if the board would have found out, even with my tenure Madara couldn't save me. The boards are the ultimate factor, and they all go to church every single Sunday listening to someone preach about people they don't know being evil." Sasori sighed and watched as Deidara and Itachi came down arguing. "Oh boy, they're at it again."

"That's a stupid place for a bathroom! Not to mention it's dreary! Is that what keeps you guys all bitchy? What the hell were these people thinking when they built this dump." Deidara yelled jumping down the stairs. "That's just a fucking stupid place to put it; they should put it on the first floor. Have to go up two fucking flights…"

"If you're complaining, get out." Itachi said coldly. Deidara dropped his smug smile, and received the icy emotion. He walked by the blond and glared, "I'm sure Hidan would be more than happy to see you. Not to mention what Madara has in store when he catches any of us. So please, complain again."

"You bastard…" Deidara said reaching for his gun. Itachi heard and spun around raising his fists.

"Break it up!" Sasori yelled standing up. The two stopped in place and dropped their heads and their hands. Sasori sighed, "Opposite couches now. Can't believe I'm yelling at people your age about behaving, especially you Itachi."

"Sorry." Itachi said and went to the far couch sitting down. He lay down and looked over at them. "I guess I'm just a little on edge."

Dediara just stayed quiet and went to the nearest couch and sat down like a child who was punished; arms folded and pouting. Sasori just sat down and turned back to Sasuke. "Where were we?"

"I don't know…" Sasuke said and looked at Naruto who had gathered the cards and had begun shuffling them. "I think we were in persecution."

"Yes, so, they tried to Christianize me. Was very horrible, wouldn't recommend it." Sasori said trying to take a lighter note. It really didn't work out. "What happened with you?"

"Usually. Beaten, cussed at, and excluded from everything." Sasuke said. He turned to look at Naruto, and smiled. "Naruto's story tops mine however. Pink haired girl."

"I believe that does." Sasori nodded and turned over to Itachi. "Why didn't you tell me Sasuke was gay? Do you really think I would have treated him any differently?"

"I didn't think it mattered." Itachi grumbled and shoved his hands over his eyes. He sighed loudly, "Does it matter, because I'd never think you to judge?"

"Well, it's just that I could have helped him along, after all going through the same thing…"

"Wait, same thing? You're gay too? Am I the only straight guy here? I'm starting to feel like I'm in prison when they turn the lights off." Deidara said loudly.

"Calm down, you asshole." Sasuke snapped at him. "Naruto, Sasori and I are the only ones. If you're homophobic you're in the wrong place."

"I'm not, but guys attempt to rape me a lot." Deidara said nervously. "Have you ever tried bathing in the boys bathroom with long, beautiful hair? It's a horrible thought… I just don't want to be raped."

"Don't worry, you're among friends. You've been staying with me for how long and nothing's happened to you?" Sasori asked reinforcing the stability of the environment. Naruto's shuffling of the poker cards broke the heavy conversation which was a relief to them all. "Anyway, I guess you won't be needing those college books then, I doubt Madara's going to keep the payment there for your tuition."

"He's too pissed to think about that, anyway, with the things Deidara's gotten from the files, we should be set to go to the cops right?" Itachi asked wearily from the couch. "As soon as he goes to prison, his assets are turned over to Sasuke."

"Wrong, right now, we'd all go down, I need to black out some of the things. It'll be about another week before we have enough for a Manslaughter conviction on the so called patients. You want him away for life; you're looking at another few days tacked on to the week." Deidara sat foreword. "You guys have anything fun to do around here?"

"My PS3's upstairs." Naruto offered. Deidara looked like he was considering it for a second but than shook his head. "Cards?"

"Got any fireworks? Poppers… Pop rocks?" Deidara tried but Sasuke shook his head. They sat there bored for a minute until the door opened up and Kisame and Jugo came in. "That was fast."

"There's a corner store up the block. Makes everything easier." Jugo said and set the bags down looking over everyone. He stopped and pulled out a thing of cherry syrup passing it off to Sasuke. "It's weird, I asked where it was and the guy went 'oh, you're one of Sasuke's friends aren't you?'"

Sasuke just smiled and popped the top off to drink it straight. Kisame set down a large box on the table. He smiled and waited for someone to notice what it was. Itachi looked over and laughed. "Jesus, you got Balderdash. Talk about a never ending game."

"You mean that time with argued over that word until Madara threw the game into the fireplace." Sasuke said and finished chugging the bottle. "Ambiguous… Uncertainty of meaning."

"No, two or more meanings but they are certain." Itachi quickly corrected. Kisame suddenly began regretting his choice of game. He sighed having already opened it in the car. "Where are Karin and Suigetsu with the food, I'm starving."

"You're always starving." Kisame said grabbing the box's wrappings and tossing them at him. "Guy never gains any weight and eats like he's a bottomless pit. Half my paycheck goes to feeding him."

"You only have to put up with until June, than I'll be done and out somewhere in the world… Hopefully." Itachi said, he sighed and sat up. He stared for a second before bolting up. "I have to go cash Madara's check before he puts a stop on it. Deidara come on."

"I'm coming." Deidara grumbled and got up. He walked across the room realizing what he had said. "Wait, why am I coming, you drive like your blind."

"Because if someone shows up you can shoot them." Itachi said opening the door. Deidara muttered happily about his gun and the door shut. Kisame sat down at the table and began sorting out the game.

"School's going to be shitty tomorrow." Sasuke muttered. Naruto dropped the cards realizing tomorrow was going to be even more different. "Think of something?"

"Yea, I want to call Shikamaru. Tell him about what happened today. Come with me." Naruto said standing up and offering a hand to Sasuke. He accepted and was helped from the floor in a swift movement. Slowly they made their way upstairs and down to one of the front rooms where Naruto sat them down at a window bench. He pulled his phone and began dialing. "It can be worse than shitty."

"So? I'll protect you." Sasuke said and cuddled into Naruto.

"Hey, Shika, you will not believe what happened today." Naruto said answering. He stood quiet for a minute, "Well they can go fuck themselves, but listen. Sakura went and ratted us out to Madara. Everything, no, more than, yea, lot of stuff."

"What the Hell?" Was heard clearly over the phone. Shikamaru muttered something into the phone and sighed.

"I know you will… Yea, we're fine. We're both okay." Naruto said squeezing Sasuke's hand. He turned and set his forehead against Sasuke's. "Yea, tomorrow. Later."

Naruto hung up the phone and sighed. "We're the talk of the school, literally. I guess we've divided the school."

"Divided, good, now I can finally know who to hate." Sasuke started laughing and Naruto hit him on the arm gently. "So, what'd he say about Sakura?"

"Apparently, that she immediately went to Shino's and got a call from him. Shika got into an argument and I guess that's how the two sides happened." Naruto tossed his phone down. He moved his free hand onto Sasuke's shoulder and kissed the young Uchiha on the forehead. "I hope you know you've royally turned my life upside down."

"Not yet, you've still yet to be upside down." Sasuke said grinning. Naruto glared confused until he understood the meaning when Sasuke grabbed his thigh pulling him onto his back. Freaking out or a second Sasuke let go and began laughing at him.

* * *

Luckily the Chinese restaurant had a large box in which Karin and Suigetsu could carry all of the food at once. But it only made it slightly easier. They had made their way with light difficulty to the stairs in the entrance house. Both stared at it; Suigetsu sighed and began to back down it step by step. "Next time, McDonalds. I can handle twenty burgers."

"Sorry, I just wanted Chinese." Karin said trying to be sympathetic with the boy who was bearing most of the weight. He smiled and shrugged it off minding the steps. Karin tried harder to lift the box what she could to relieve some of the burden. "At least we'll have leftovers."

"Wake up, Chinese food… That's actually going to be awesome." Suigetsu admitted as he reached the bottom and backed up into the open space. Karin reached the bottom and turned the door open. She managed the door open a bit before assistance came from Sasori holding the door open. "Thanks."

"Looks like you got food for a small army."

"Well, we are a small army." Karin said and they set the box down on top of Kisame's game crushing the box. Both teens immediately fell down where they were catching their breaths.

"I just bought this!" Kisame yelled standing up. "Just, as in twenty minutes ago."

"Calm down, I'll buy you a new one." Suigetsu muttered laying down. "It's just a game."

"That's not the point, it's about respect! You're supposed to respect people's property." Kisame yelled.

"DAD!" Suigetsu bellowed in response. There was a loud crashing noise from the first floor followed by faint laughter. "Obviously someone wasn't expecting me to yell."

"I told you not to call me that. It makes me feel old and like I have some sort of obligation to you." Kisame said grumpily.

"And I told you to calm down." Suigetsu said sat back up. He looked around and saw the gaps in people. "So, where is everyone?"

"Sasuke and Naruto were the loud crash, Itachi and Deidara went out to get money." Sasori said walking over to look at the box. He took one of them and looked inside. "Any specials?"

"Nope, just eat your fill." Karin said and reached up and grabbed a bag of crab Rangoon. "We do have to eat all the Rangoon before Itachi gets back though, he doesn't like the smell of it."

"Weirdo." Kisame and Suigetsu muttered at the same time.


	34. War!

**As it is the last update before the new year, this is a good plug place. I am taking requests for fan fictions, check out my profile for more information on how to request one. **

"It's a fucking convoy!" Suigetsu yelled at Kisame. Who suggested they take all the cars just in case. "Do you have any idea how much will stick out? If Madara was looking to kill us, we'd be giving him a big ass target!"

"They've got guns, we have Deidara. Guns are useless if your arms are blown off." Itachi said passing by as he opened the door to Kisame's hummer. "Sasuke, Naruto, move it! We're going to be late."

"I'm late every day." Sasuke argued but came out anyway in his normal clothing. "Why don't I just not go and hide inside all day? It'll save us time and effort."

"No, get in, center. Naruto, to his side." Itachi ordered as the blond came out right behind his boyfriend. "Suigetsu, you cover the other side. Karin, you'll ride with Sasori and Deidara."

The red head nodded and made her way towards Sasori and Deidara saying hi somewhat nervously. The three piled in the car quietly and waited while Kisame and Itachi exchanged words. Inside the hummer Suigetsu scratched his head. "Why don't they just kill Madara?"

"They must want something from him." Naruto said quietly leaning his head on Sasuke's shoulder. He sighed, "I wonder what it could be."

"Madara is still my current legal guardian. Maybe it has something to do with that." Sasuke said and grabbed Naruto's hand. "I'm not really believing that's it though. Both Itachi and Madara warned me about this guy…"

Sasuke went silent when the doors to the hummer opened. Kisame and Itachi got into the front seats, both slamming the door. Kisame shoved the key into the car and started it. "Seriously, we could make a break for Mexico with most of them legally. It's a good idea. I've got a cousin down in Cancun."

"It's just that… Why run? They'll chase, hunting's what Madara's good at, or did you forget that?" Itachi muttered as they began to turn off the street. Suddenly Sasuke's phone began ringing. He looked at and answered. "Who is this?"

"Deidara let me borrow his phone. You should get a Mercedes, it's way better than a corvette." Karin said happily petting the seats around her.

"Why's it way better than a corvette?" Sasuke asked while putting his phone on speaker. "I mean, a corvette's a corvette for Christ's sake, Mercedes has no stature with muscle."

"It's got a back seat." She said loudly.

Sasuke heard this and clamped his hand over his mouth. The only thing running through his head was what he normally though backseats were for. "I could never have a back seat… You'd know what I'd do in a back seat."

He broke down laughing. Naruto and Suigetsu understood this and joined him. Karin didn't think it was funny. "I'm tired of having to ride on Suigetsu's lap or in a nonexistent seat."

"Than get your driver's license." Sasuke said quickly and hung up. "Why am I the only one to have a license?"

"Because Kisame won't let me drive his precious hummer." Suigetsu picked. Kisame pointed a finger directly in his face without turning to look at him. "It's true."

"It's not true, I let you drive it once, and you got a speeding ticket for going 90 in a 45. I can't afford to pay all your tickets, you need to either learn to speed better or get a job that makes enough money to pay six hundred bucks a week." Kisame retracted his hand and pulled the hummer to a stop out in front of the school. Itachi was the one that turned around. "You guys get into the school and don't take a step out until we come and pick you up, got it?"

"Alright, just be here on time." Sasuke muttered and motioned for Suigetsu to open the door. They all filed out, and than just to piss Kisame off Suigetsu slammed the door. He could hear the yelling from inside and smiled. Sasuke gave him a look and Suigetsu shrugged. They waited a second while Sasori drove up and out from the back seat Kari walked out laughing. She waved goodbye to them and made her way over to the group. "Let's go, and remember, now is probably the best time to pick fights with people you hate."

"Why?" Naruto asked of Sasuke as they started going in. The entire group could feel the two red eyes on them. For some reason it made them whisper.

"Because, we get in a fight, we go home. We go home; we don't have to deal with hell once we step through those doors." Sasuke said and looked up at the two large doors to West View High School.

Naruto pushed ahead of him and took two steps in. He turned around to Sasuke and offered him a hand. "Hell's no so bad is it?"

"Yeah, fuck 'um, right Sasuke?" Suigetsu said walking passed him into the school. Karin followed suit and at that point Sasuke grabbed Naruto's hand to proceed inside. Within ten steps the group had everyone in the hall looking, not that it mattered much to any of them.

Everyone avoided them except for two people walking straight towards them: Shikamaru and Hinata. Suigetsu was about to become protective of Sasuke but Naruto shoved past him and greeted them. "So, what's new?"

"Not much, war… but not much besides that." Shikamaru said quietly. He shrugged and watched Sasuke take a place besides Naruto. "I'd steer clear of Sakura and Shino, any contact with them would probably be towards the worst."

"I've got Neji trying to keep the paper clear of any opinion about it. Apparently he's had to turn down five papers this morning. But two were in your favor." Hinata said trying to make things sound not as bad as they would probably be. "Ino said she was in your first class so you have her to talk to in there so you don't have to deal with Sakura."

"Cool. Well, we'd better get going." Sasuke said and nodded a farewell to them as he and Naruto walked away towards the junior hall. Suigetsu walked up behind Hinata and tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey I have a question."

Hinata squeaked a bit. "What's wrong with your teeth?"

"My teeth? Oh, I file them, nice and pointy." He said and snapped his jaw shut in a display. "Anyway, you're Neji's little cousin right? Could you get an essay into the paper for me?"

---------(BLaCK BiRD)---------

Naruto entered his classroom for social studies hand still warm from Sasuke. Taking a step in, he clearly saw the divide. He decided to take it easy and climb over the back four desks to grab a seat next to Ino, Tenten and Lee. Ino looked over and Naruto waved nervously. She smiled, "You showed up! Good, because we have a test."

"Which I didn't study for." Naruto remembered his weekend. He supposed sleeping with Sasuke made up for a flunked test in social studies. "Oh well. I suppose I have other things to worry about."

"So, you're really dating Sasuke?" Lee asked turning around. "That's different, I just thought you were going to become a priest."

"That's a stupid theory Lee." Tenten said hitting him upside the head. She quickly hopped seats to the other side of Naruto blocking him off from the rest of the class. "I always knew something good would happen to that boy, it turned out to be you, isn't that great, Naruto?"

"It is." Naruto smiled.

Suddenly they heard clapping for attention as a different teacher came into the classroom than normal. She stopped in the front of the room behind the desk and waited for everyone to look. "Miss Higgins will not be finishing out the school year; she has had an accident and will not be able to attend. As I'm the only staff who doesn't have class during this time, and who doesn't have a coffee addiction, I'll be teaching."

"Does that mean our test is cancelled?" Naruto asked quickly. Ino and Tenten laughed and rolled their eyes.

"I don't have tests, it means I have to take something home to correct and that's a lot of extra work. So yea, you're test is cancelled." She said picking up the dry erase marker and writing her name in perfect cursive. 'Kureani Yuhi.' "Feel free to call me Kureani, I'm not much into formalities. Now, what section are you guys on in your book?"

"We just finished Russia." Tenten said and watched as Kureani flipped through the book. She stuck a pen in her mouth and began chewing on it. "I think we were going to start China today."

"Uh-huh, I see. Well, why don't we start by getting in our seat in stead of this big conglomeration over here." Kurenai said pointing out the group where Shino and Sakura had associated themselves in. She watched the divide and sighed. "Is there some big argument going on or something, or are were you supposed to take this test as differing view-points?"

The class stayed in a dark silence. "Whatever, why don't we start out by splitting into pairs and jotting down everything we know about China. And no, not just lots of people, I want good facts. I have to learn the chapter really quick so behave."

Kurenai sat down and quickly went to studying about China while the class got into their pairs. Naruto and Ino quickly paired up and realized they knew practically nothing about China. "Um, it's got a huge landmass."

"The Gobi desert?" Naruto asked and Ino just wrote them down. "I think one a person is good."

"Yea, so do I." Ino said looking at the list, if she could even call it that. "Hey, Lee, what do you guys have, we need like another one."

"Ming Vases are expensive." Lee said smiling giving a huge thumbs up. He turned back around and kept giving bad answers to Tenten: "Everything from China is cheaper. They like rice."

"At least ours are minor good." Ino said softly. She sighed and looked over to the other half of the class. "She looks sad. Sakura…"

Naruto looked over at the pink haired girl to see her strain, her sorrow. Her eyes were puffy as though she just finished crying and were accompanied by dark shadows from the loss of sleep. Naruto instinctively got up and made his way across the classroom and knelt down in front of her. "Are you okay?"

Sakura looked at him with wide eyes. She shook her head and sniffled. "I don't like any of this."

"Sakura, don't talk to him." Shino said commandingly. He looked down at Naruto from his seat, glaring from behind the glasses. "Why don't you go back to those fools, you've cause enough damage over here."

"Who you calling fools, you four eyes! Wearing sunglasses at night is for retards!" Ino yelled across the class room.

"Hey."

"You should be talking; we all know you're a slut."

"HEY! I will NOT have that in my classroom!" Kurenai yelled throwing her book down. The class went silent. "I don't know what the hell is going on but I will not have this level of disrespect in my classroom! You are all young adults and need to act like it, am I understood? Now get back to your seats!"

"That level of stress isn't good, Kurenai…" Said a deep voice over the room. They turned to see Asuma walk in the joining door. He stopped near the door way and looked over the class realizing the problem instantly. "Naruto, why don't you go over and sit by Ino."

Naruto quickly abandoned his effort to talk to Sakura and did as instructed by the Physics teacher. Sitting down he watched as Asuma pulled Kurani off to the far corner of the classroom and began explaining what was going on. Kureani turned a glance at Naruto and than turned back to Asuma. She nodded and Asuma headed back into his classroom.

Kurenai sat back down behind the desk and checked that he had shut the door all the way. "One day he's going to say the wrong thing and get a Stiletto up his ass."

The class laughed and than went back into their silence. She sighed and stared over the class. She took a minute to think over the situation and found it best to do as advised. '_Let them be separated._' "Alright, let's ignore what just happened and get to reading about what we have on China, shall we? Lee, your up."

Tenten sighed and tossed her head on the desk as Lee began a horrible racist list of knowledge. Lee read and read the list until ending with "and the Great Wall was built to keep Mongols out."

"You actually got one!" Tenten said happily and patted him on the back. Lee smiled and gave her a thumbs up. "We get points for having one right?"

"I wasn't going to do points; I figured someone would do all the stereotypes." Kurenai said and looked over to Ino. "Yours, Ino?"

"Um, it's got a very large land mass and has the Gobi desert." She said trying to read her own writing. "Are those right?"

"Yep, next group, Sakura. Whatcha got?"

"Um, they practice a lot of Buddhism, and they were the first people to make silk. Their calendar is by the lunar cycle." She said softly. Shino placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head at Kurenai.

"Alright, Shino why don't you escort her to the nurses office and tell them she's feeling sick." Kurenai said and quickly moved onto the next group, dodging any further interruption her class might have. Ino turned to Naruto and smiled like she pitied him. "Naruto, next time, I wouldn't go over there, just for safety's sake."

---------(BLaCK BiRD)---------

"Well, class could have gone a lot better." Naruto said walking out with Ino and Lee. He was escorted to his locker where after a few seconds Sasuke showed up with a smile. Ino looked at him somewhat nervously. Sasuke noted them and nodded.

"Sasori's class is testing Madara, he says it's hilarious. Do you think Itachi would be mad if I snuck up there?" Naruto rolled his eyes. "I know he'd be pissed, but could I get away with it."

"And a bloody nose." Sasuke remembered the incidence. He lost his smiled and saw a glimmer of light, than realized it was off sun glasses. Sasuke poked Naruto and pointed. "Hm, oh. Ignore him and see if he goes away."

"Yea, like that will work." Ino whispered. It did for a second before Naruto felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see Shino, Sakura, Chouji and several other people assembled, obviously against them. "Um, we have to get to the water fountain, excuse…"

"That won't work Ino." Chouji said. "You use it to get away from Asuma all the time, remember?"

"Oh yea. Well shoot." She said scratching her head out of ideas.

"We want to talk to Naruto, alone." Shino said. Immediately his hands were taken by Sasuke and Ino. "Don't make this hard, we want to help him."

"I bet with a brick and a few seconds of bashing I could fix you." Sasuke said getting defensive. Naruto gave Sasuke a look so he would back off. Sasuke apologized quietly but gripped Naruto's hand tighter.

"I don't need fixed, I don't need help, and I don't need someone to correct me. There's nothing wrong with me, or with any of us." Naruto said trying to explain it without sounding angry. "It's my life and I'd like to keep it that way."

"We have to disagree. God says…" Shino said and he was suddenly hit upside the back of the head.

"God says mind you own beeswax. Can you be anymore troublesome, today?" Shikamaru said pushing past him. Shikamaru shot a glance at Chouji, "And I'm seriously disappointed in you. I thought you had a more reasonable head on your shoulder."

"Don't give me trouble for this. I attend Church regularly." Chouji snapped back.

Shikamaru shook his head. Shino looked directly at Naruto raising his glasses making them see nearly eye to eye. "It is unwise to keep with him. He's evil."

"And bugs are fucking creepy. And you know what, I love him." Naruto said loudly. Quickly Naruto turned around to his boyfriend, shoved him against the locker and pissed them off. Their lips locked together as Naruto pressed fully against him. Sasuke knew behind this there was no emotion, only display, and was completely fine with it. He took his hand and buried it in Naruto's hair, only to pull it out to flip them off than grab his ass.

Sasuke released him and smiled, Naruo began laughing and they walked away waving the three with them along. "That was fun, we should make out to piss people off more often, Naruto."

"Yea, and you're luck if they don't report you. You can get in a lot of trouble for displays of affection." Lee said stating words from Guy.

"They won't though, will they Shika?" Sasuke asked looking back at him.

Shikamaru shook his head. "And when asked why Naruto and Sasuke were making out to upset them, don't you think a larger awkward silence would be criminal?"

From down the hall Sakura stood alone with Shino starring at them. "I don't care anymore, Naruto's more important than…"

"Nonsense. You're just emotional after all that crying and the confusion. What you're doing now is right. Being around an Uchiha is a dangerous business, and he might end up hurt. Hurting him is probably the best way to keep him form getting seriously injured." Shino concluded and led her away.


	35. Nine and the Traitor

Madara felt stupid walking into the back of the high school, but he was alone so it was his only option. Arriving while class was ongoing he found the halls empty so he made it to the office unabridged. Entering he walked over to the secretary and began lying. "I need to pull out my nephew, Sasuke Uchiha, we're having a family emergency."

"You can have a seat right there, it'll be a second." She said and began flipping through files to pull out Sasuke's class list and write up a pass to come to the office. She quickly handed it off to an office aid who left the area. Madara stared around at the office and looked to see the vice principle's office right behind the secretary's desk. '_Thank god I get a full sized office_.'

After a minute the office aide returned and went back to her duties. A second later Sasuke walked in the room smelling of smoke and looking tired. He looked at the secretary and looked at the chair next to him to see Madara. He groaned as he turned back to the secretary, "Please tell me I'm in trouble."

"We're having a bit of a family emergency; I'm signing you out of school." Madara said standing. He quickly signed the paper writing Sasuke out at said point in time and led him out of the office. "Why do you smell of smoke?"

"Because I smoke." Sasuke said blatantly as he was shown the door out. He turned his head to see Sakura watching him. Sasuke mouthed something and was pushed out the door. Sakura quickly ran and hid around a corner until she heard the door slam.

"So," Madara said looking at him putting a stern hand on his shoulder. "You smoke, you have a boyfriend and you're working against me. Anything else I should know?"

"I think your house is ugly, looks like baby throw up. You have far too many cats. You could use some Botox, you're face looks like a bad rubber mask. For being so rich, you're really frugal, which makes you look like Scrooge, who you do in fact resemble." Sasuke said and tried to think of something else. "That's all I got for now, but if something comes to mind I'll just blurt it out."

"You really are like me; you just don't know it yet." Madara said and shoved him in the passenger seat of his car. He closed the door and locked it remotely afterwards. Sasuke playfully unlock it, and Madara quickly locked it again. Madara unlocked his side and got in locking the car up again. "You can calm down you know."

Sasuke pulled his knife but stopped when he saw a gun pointed at him. Madara sighed and took the knife away tossing it in the back seat and re-holstering his gun. "Sasuke, I don't want to hurt you."

"What do you want from me than? An apology?" Sasuke said loudly.

"To talk. You know, I feel like there's been this huge misunderstanding between the two of us. That of course is notwithstanding what you have been told and what you haven't been told." Madara said and began to drive off.

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

Sakura lied to the secretary. Her teachers always sent her to get more hall passes, so this was easy for her. She simply walked in smiling, told her a random teacher sent her for a new pack of hall passes and took one. She left and walked into girl's room pulling out a pen. She hoped she was doing the right thing.

She could have sworn Sasuke mouthed 'help.' Sakura scribble the secretary's signature and a few other things on the pass and tossed the rest of them in her back pocket. She walked down the hall, into a classroom handing off to the teacher the slip and quickly leaving without looking around the room or being noticed at all. She waited outside the classroom until he walked out starring at the pass confused.

"Madara took Sasuke." Naruto jerked his head towards her. She pulled out the slips and handed them to him. "This doesn't mean I changed my mind about anything, it's just that Uchihas are dangerous. He was taken about three minutes ago. I thought he mouthed the word 'help'."

"Sakura?" Naruto asked as she walked away silently down the hall. "Sakura!"

"Don't talk to me anymore!" She replied back and ran away as fast as she could. Naruto looked down at his hand, the pad of crisp new hall passes. He sighed and began filling them out.

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

"Wait, what?" Sasuke asked, having completely calmed down over the entire situation. He actually listened to what Madara had to say, and what he had to say, was somewhat shocking. "Say that again."

"I don't care that you're gay or that you smoke, I'm pissed about my office, and I couldn't give a damn if you like my house or my cats." Madara said sternly as they stopped in the Science building's parking lot. "You are so like me when I was younger, it's completely repetitive. However, you're brother is something else. Not to mention pulling guns on me."

"Itachi didn't pull his gun on you; that was Sasori and Kisame. I got the entire story after they got home." Sasuke exacted as they got out of the car simultaneously, the gun being held in holster by Madara. "So, you're kidnapping me so you can get Itachi to talk one on one? I doubt that's going to work."

"Yes. I just need to talk to him. You see, Itachi is special. He was genetically altered, and I need his help." Madara said calmly like he was telling a daily happening. "All I need is some bone marrow from him."

"Taking the marrow actually involves surgery; I don't think he'll be happy with that." Sasuke said partially growling. "In fact, I don't think I'm quite happy with that. I know you won't even attempt to cure him; otherwise you would have already tried. You plan on using it to try and keep more of your 'experiments' alive. Correct?"

"You've been told too much." Madara groaned and opened the door to let Sasuke into the building. Upon entering, several of Sasori's students cheered 'teach' and waved to him. Sasuke waved back and continued with Madara down to the labs. "You're quite popular around here."

"It's because I've got a pretty face. You should think of getting one. It may help your image. Oh I remembered something else," Sasuke said and held the door closed. "I don't like you, in fact you can burn at the stake you manipulative asshole. You can't buy being liked, and you can't bully or scare someone into it. Remember that when Itachi comes to kick your ass. I sent out an SOS before we left school, he'll be here soon, and I can't wait to see the look on your face when he smashes your face into the ground."

"You little bastard." Madara laughed. He grabbed him by the upper arm and opened the door tossing him in. Nagato looked at the young Uchiha who struggled for his balance. "Nagato, he needs his vaccinations updated. Do it and write it off as an experiment would you?"

"Oh, sure." Nagato said and grabbed Sasuke's arm to keep him from going after Madara. The door shut and they heard a loud bolting resonance echoing through the room. Sasuke looked at Nagato like he was going to punch him in the face again. "Madara may be old, but he's a wiley old man. Anyway, if you got hurt while I was around, Itachi will kill me."

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

Naruto calmly walked into Suigetsu's geometry class and handed the teacher the hall pass which seemed to be made out by the principle. Naruto left and heard Suigetsu swear loudly when he heard he had to go to the office. The entire class laughed with the teacher yelling at him about saying the 'f' word in public. Suigetsu grabbed his bag and walked out of the classroom muttering to himself. Once outside he saw the blond standing there. "Did you get me out of class?"

"Madara took Sasuke. Where's Karin at?" Naruto said quickly. Suigetsu stood for a second before running down the hall and threw open the door to a near by class room. He was in for a second than reappeared with Karin attempting to run at his speed. "Okay, we need to get a hold of Itachi. So, we need to get to Black Bird."

"What the Hell is going on?" Karin hissed as she fixed her glasses.

"Madara took Sasuke." Suigetsu said quietly and Karin's jaw dropped. Her mouth starting moving like to ask 'how, why and what' but no sound came out. Suigetsu grabbed her hand and held it until she stopped mumbling. He turned his gaze toward Naruto to smile with a Piranha's grin. "We better get running."

"Right." Naruto began out the side doors with the two in hot pursuit. On the way out they passed several teacher's, all of which yelled, but they didn't hear. They were too busy focusing on getting to Black Bird. After a few minutes of hard running, and being out of breath, they arrived on the stoop of the entry house.

Naruto motion for them to stay there and ran inside to the basement crashing through the door to see the basement empty. He caught his breath and bellowed. "MADARA TOOK SASUKEEEEEE!"

Upstairs Itachi stopped dead. He didn't believe the yell until he heard it a second later as Naruto came rushing into his room covered in sweat. "Madara took Sasuke, we have to go get him."

Itachi's lip shook for a second before he grabbed the holster and slung it on over his shirt. Naruto was kind of hoping he would say something calming, but he didn't as he was greeted outside his room by the three former followers of Madara. "We go, we shoot to kill. If anyone gets in our way…"

"We'll hit the fire alarm a few minutes before. It'll evacuate the students." Sasori said and they all strapped their guns checking them while Suigetsu and Karin finally made their way up the stairs. "What do we do about them?"

"We're going." Naruto said firmly. He headed into Sasuke room and saw the gun lying in the middle of the floor. He checked it for bullets and shoved it in the back of his pants. He walked back out as Suigetsu was coming out of his room shoving away a horde of knives. "Well?"

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

"What's that?" Sasuke asked as Nagato pulled out a syringe and needle. Nagato handed him a file and pointed to three of them. Sasuke looked at the sheet not getting any of what was there. "And this means what to me?"

"You're behind on your vaccinations. Madara said to update you so I am." Nagato said simply as he placed the needle on the syringe and pulled out another syringe. "So, I take it you weren't kidnapped for destroying his office? By the way, that was hilarious."

"No, and thanks." Sasuke said and watched him carefully. "Why does Madara need Itachi's bone marrow?"

"Itachi was genetically altered. Haven't you noticed how he hasn't gotten sick, seems to rarely get injured, horribly quick reflexes." Nagato said and finished the prepping the third vaccine. "Can you take off your sweater? Don't want to inject it in the wrong place."

"Sure. So, are you on our side?" Sasuke asked looking at him while stripping off the sweater. Nagato gave him a rejected look. "Scared, or what?"

"I'm not sure how to answer that completely. I play for myself and for Konan. I work for whomever seems to be going the farthest. My goals are completely separate from Madara, Itachi and the traitor. I'm looking for someone, someone who regenerated limbs in weeks, who complete irradiated pain for the dying. Well, I'm looking for his research now." Nagato said administering the first shot. He put a blue band-aid over it and wrote Hep A.

"You make it sound like some noble cause." Sasuke snorted. He turned to him, "What do you mean 'his research now?'"

"Rumor has it he went crazy after his wife died. One rumor is he filled is office with laughing gas and overdosed on it with the song 'You Are My Sunshine' on repeat. Another is that he decided nothing was worth it anymore and burned down his house with him inside. Of course those are just rumors. Every now and than, someone will say they saw him in some remote location of the world." Nagato said and injected the second shot. He stuck a yellow band-aid on and wrote Hep B. "The last sighting by someone who knew him was a year ago in Mexico City, a few people say they still see him there every now and than."

"So, you're chasing a ghost?" Sasuke turned away. "Can't you just locate his files and get them?"

"He was working for the government. Also, another rumor has it he destroyed everything with a computer virus. He was a very clever man. He was the Dean of Sciences here when he was twenty-five. Youngest Dean ever." Nagato said and gave the last shot putting a tan band-aid on it with mumps written on it. "You know, there's a rumor, he actually went chasing ghost, one that could bring his wife back to life."

"So, you're a chasing a ghost who's chasing a ghost. Why not chase his ghost and see if you can't bump into him." Sasuke suggested putting his sweater back on. "Two people hunting the same goal are more likely to run into each other being on the same page."

"I wouldn't myself, that's the traitor and Madara's goal, finding Nine is dangerous." He said quietly.

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

"We need a plan. We can't just go storming in there with Hidan armed. He'll harm himself even to scratch someone else." Sasori said and they all sighed. "So we throw fire alarm, where's Sasuke at and who's guarding him?"

"I doubt he'd put him with Hidan or Kakuzu, that's a fight waiting to happen." Kisame thought. "Konan and Nagato are the only ones who would baby sit him."

"If he's with one of them, we should be able to have some time to think this out. I have a temporary agreement with them." Itachi said. He turned to Naruto, and saw his worried eyes. He turned back to the group. "I'd say we have fifteen minutes, let's get planning."

They moved quickly to the basement where Itachi quickly drew the floor plans for the science building on a wall in Sharpie. Every door, every window and every table and chair was laid out. "Alright, we have to infiltrate this place and do it quickly.

"Since ten to one Nagato or Konan have him, if we show up they'll just give him to us. If Hidan of Kakuzu had him, Sasuke would have probably picked a fight and killed them and be on the way, however, he would have called."

"Sasuke left his phone here this morning. Madara kept calling." Naruto said and Itachi nodded.

"If I give assignments, can you all follow them to the tee?" The group nodded their heads. "Alright, this is how we get _mon__frère_ back."

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

"Nine? What kind of stupid name is that?" Sasuke asked, he than watched as Nagato paled.

"Nine seconds, he could kill anyone in nine seconds or less. They say he's a walking demon. A government scientist, a self-experiment gone sour." Nagato climbed up to sit on the counter next to Sasuke. "Nine is well over seventy now, but I doubt he looks it. He was a project in eternal youth, such as Madara's working on. Madara's looking for Nine, I'm looking for his chase-ee. As you so eloquently put, Madara is hunting him, I'm just skimming off his work."

"Sorry I smashed your face into the ground when we first met, you looked… well angry." Sasuke apologized. "I probably could have just yelled for Madara and avoided it. I like fighting though…"

"Oh, I can tell." Nagato said rolling his eyes as he turned away. "So, now that we've come to terms, you are forbidden to join this movement."

"Itachi tells me…"

"No." Nagato interrupted and got a dark gaze. "The only way I get my research for him is by being Madara's second. The minute you would join, I'd be demoted. I'd lose my research, I'd lose my way of tracking him, and I'd have a cold trail to follow. This is my life's work, and threat of life or not, you won't get in my way. You're not the only one who can fight, I used to be a state champion boxer, so I can take you out in one hit if I need to."

"Now that's a threat!" Sasuke said somewhat excited by it. "However, I don't intend on joining, I intend on seeing Madara dead. No, I'm going to pick the lock and get us out of here if you're done with my shots." Sasuke said jumping off the table He walked over to the door and saw the reflection of two round lenses. "Who…?"

The window crashed behind them and smoke filled the room. Nagato rushed to cover Sasuke's mouth from the gas, but it was useless and both fell dizzy to the floor. The door unlocked and opened to have two figures walk through. There was a laugh, deep and sinister. "Look, he's like a heavily pierced version of me; long hair, skinny. Piercings and red hair, that's not much of a difference, eh Kabuto?"


	36. You sound like Burns and Smithers

Itachi scratched the top of his head and looked at the Black Birds. "Alright, so, Karin. You go in and trip the fire alarm. While's you doing that, Deidara, go and get the rest of the files you need to put Madara behind bars.

"The rest of us will go room to room looking in pairs. That's basically all the panning we can do. However some important things." Itachi said and began circling things on his make shift map. "These rooms are the labs, they can be locked from the outside only, there's a high probability he's in this row of rooms.

"That's where Kisame and I will search. All the rest of you flank out from the center. We only have about five minutes until the fire engines will show up. So, any questions?"

"No, but I have something to get at my dorm before I go in. Sasori, I'm stealing your car." Deidara said cheerfully and grabbed the keys off the table. Deidara darted out of the room running away from Sasori's protests.

He quickly made it to Sasori's car and took off for the dorms where he and the other law students lived. Getting out he burst through the doors and up the stairs to his apartment which he shared alone. He looked around the boxes piled on top of boxes and sighed. It was more sorting he would have to do later.

Deidara began shuffling through the boxes and pulling out different bits of random objects; wiring, small fireworks and other things he thought were fun. There was a whistle from behind him. He just scrunched his face and hoped it was for something else, however, it was exactly what he thought. "Hey sweet thing."

"Go die, fucker!" Deidara yelled continuing his search. There were too loud footsteps behind him. He whipped around and pointed the Desert Eagle at the other student. "3… 2…"

The other student ran from the room quickly and stupidly. Deidara laughed to himself brushing his hair out of his face. She shoved the gun back in its holster covering it with his jacket. Calmly he picked up the box and walked out of his room humming a happy song. On his way out he passed a room with an open door where the student was yelling to his roommates about the gun.

-----------( blAck bIrd )---------

"It'll be okay. Sasuke's a brute, he won't go down easily. If I know anything, he caused more trouble for Mdara than he was expecting already." Sasori reassured Naruto as they began out into the street in Kisame's hummer. Naruto didn't hear the words though they may have helped his mood. He was zoned, focused into finding Sasuke. He just stared out the window letting what Sasori was saying mix into a small argument Karin was having with Suigetsu in the trunk. Eventually Karin won the argument and stole Suigetsu sweater off him claiming she was cold.

The streets faded out from houses and small businesses to apartment complexes and finally to dorms and large buildings with huge classrooms. Naruto didn't take notice that they had stopped, he just glared as everyone else opened their doors to get out. He was shaken to attention by a firm hand. Itachi looked at him, "Can you do this?"

Naruto nodded and got out of the hummer stumbling a bit. He caught himself and made his way over to the group which assembled on the sidewalk. Itachi followed him back and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We go in together… As soon as Deidara gets back."

"Do we really have to wait for him?" Suigetsu asked taking the center of the circle. He stared straight at Itachi and pointed a finger at him. "I mean, it's Sasuke. Sasuke! Your little brother. Let's just go in, guns drawn…"

"And be arrested." Naruto finished his sentence. Suigetsu stopped and dropped his arm resuming a place by Karin. "We can wait. What good would we be as rescuers if we mess up? Sure, we can just go and tell them what Madara's up to, and watch as we all get screwed over for it."

Everybody calmed down, though nobody was relaxed. They were too wrought with either worry, anticipation or both. It took the longest four minutes of their lives for Sasori's Mercedes to pull up behind the hummer. Deidara popped out smiling and humming a happy song.

"Something good happen?" Karin asked him as he joined their circle.

"Not yet. Not yet…" Deidara kept smiling and watched as Itachi nodded and they began towards the Science building. Karin moved a little faster than them and made it into the building and began scouting out for the small red handle. Spotting one she waited until everyone had moved in. She wrapped Suigetsu sweater around her hand and grabbed it.

---------( blAck bIrd )---------

"Looks like they're about to pass out, Orochimaru." Kabuto noted as he knelt down and took the pulse of the young Uchiha. He stood up and shoved his hands in his jeans. "He'll be out soon. Should we put him on a table?"

"A strapped one, please, Kabuto." Orochimaru said daintily. He walked over and looked at Nagato in the face. Completely ignoring the struggle of his assistant with Sasuke, Orochimaru laughed. "You're still pretty conscious… Hm, trying to say something?"

"N… No." Nagato hit the two on his phone and the green send button. There was a ringing and than the lights in the lab shut off to be replaced with a red caution light in a strobe setting. "Re…enforcements and se…security matters."

Nagato passed out and left the signal going. Orochimaru sighed and stood looking at Kabuto. "When you're down strapping him down, would you turn the lights back on?"

"Of course." Kabuto tossed Sasuke onto the table and began putting the straps on. As he continued there was loud noise and into the room walked Kazuku and Hidan. Kabuto continued while Orochimaru laughed.

"Hello Kakuzu, why, I see you have plaything. Tell me, have you sold his spare kidney in China yet?" Orchimaru asked casually. Kakuzu just walked foreword and placed the gun to his head. "Come now, Kakuzu, we're better friends than this."

"2.3 million to cover your ass Orochimaru. 2.3. Think about that. 2.3. It set us back financially months. Months you bastard. It took me three years to collect enough money to break even." Kakuzu said almost in pain by the figure. His hand clenched around the gun and Orochimaru's hands moved quickly, the left grabbing his wrist and the right smashing down on his forearm shattering it. Kakuzu almost screamed, there was a definite squeal of pain to his breathing. He fell to the floor and fell unconscious from the pain. The noise of anguish made Hidan take a step back.

"I don't know who the fuck you are, but that was cool." Hidan smiled. He than stopped and turned around to closed the door. With a loud click he laughed. He turned stroking the side ofhis gun with his thumb. "I'm also going to enjoy abusing these new sound proof rooms, you know, they say magnums are fucking loud."

Hidan aimed it, shot and listen to the ring. He however noticed that he missed. Suddenly a pale thinly hand rested upon his shoulder. Hidan's head turned to see Orochimaru standing behind him smiling. "You know… you talk too much."

Orochimaru gave him a slight push and sent him crashing into the wall leaving an impact area. Orochimaru turned to Kabuto with a smile, "I really do hope we meet some more of my old friends. It's so nice catching up."

"You and your friends." Kabuto muttered. Finishing, he left the table and began to work on the computer about turning the lights back on giving the room a key stroke background noise.

Orochimaru walked over to the table and grabbed Sasuke's chin, turning his face to examine him. "He really is spectacular. Looks like his brother, except a bit bulkier and with tattoos. What's wrong with the new generation? It's like they have no respect for their bodies. Well, we'll change that, won't we Kabuto."

"The car's not big enough to fit him inside. We'd need a herse, which sadly we don't have." Kabuto said ruining Orochimaru's moment.

"Why do you always do that Kabuto, let me get my hopes up early like that." Orochimaru laughed. Orochimaru gripped Sasuke's arm and read off the bandages, "By the look off these, he must go traveling."

"From the file I gathered on him, he speaks basic French. Madara takes him back packing every summer along with your former experiment. It also seems he has a taste for the local cuisine." Kabuto said with a dirty smirk.

"A whore hunter, at his age? I guess I've seen younger." Orochimaru sat down at the edge of the table and just stared at him. "He's perfect, if only he wasn't inside his body. He looks so much like his brother."

"It's like your astonished by the fact." Kabuto mocked quickly and then hit the enter button on the keyboard dramatically. The red lights flickered off and the regular lights hummed for a second before coming on line. "Things of the same gene pool always share common traits."

"Don't letcture me on genes, Kabuto, or you'll wake up with scales one day." Orochimaru laughed. He got off the tabled and began dragging the unconscious Quantity members against the wall. "You know, Madara's smarter than this. You think he would have been genetically altering his members so he could have superior protection for his work. It's what I did."

"And I'm very thankful for it Orochimaru, otherwise I would have never survived that fall from the roof… Of course you pushed me and told me to have a nice trip." Kabuto mentioned.

"In the name of science, I knew you would be alright. It was the same serum I used on myself." Orochimaru walked over and placed a hand on his assistant. "Why lose you? Loyalty like yours is rare and nearly unheard of these days."

"Why thank you." Kabuto smiled.

"You sound like Burns and Smithers." Can a harsh voice. Orochimaru turned to the pile of people and saw Nagato start to blink. He raised and hand slowly and rubbed his eyes. "I'm just waiting for him to go excellent and for the four eyes to develop some type of crush on you, if he hasn't already. Kabuto was always such a kiss-ass."

"You're so funny, Nagato." Orochimaru said smiling. "Tell me, where'd you get that sense of humor from? You were always so serious."

"Hang around these two idiots long enough you have to get one otherwise you'll actually think they'll start world war three." Nagato laughed. He tried to sit up and realized he didn't go anywhere. "So, is this partial paralysis, or still on setting? Either way, I bet I could still move my mouth."

"Still on setting, of course, I never would have suspected you to have an intolerance to Ether. Practice? Or does Konan use it on you to sneak out?" Orochimaru chuckled quietly and sat down next to him. He smiled entertained as Nagato's face turned dark. "Oh did I hit a nerve?"

"No, but I forgot you left before Konan told me. She snuck out to another job. She was volunteering at a children's hospital, moonlighting as you'd call it. No, the expression is because my damn chest is freezing up. You and your paralysis. It was always your favorite." Nagato used what little use of his arm he had and pushed himself down farther. "The Ether, we had a pipe and it leaked in the lab I was in everyday. I gained a slow immunity over three years."

"Took you that long to find the leak? Aren't you supposed to have them inspected biannually, or is it semi-annually?"

"Inspector's friends with Madara. We don't get checked unless someone mentions something." Nagato muttered. "This paralysis is very painful. Has it ever been fatal?"

"If in correct doses, however it's far under the PPM that would even cause acute changes. I may have to use something besides an Ether based compound now. Thank you for being a test subject." Orochimaru said getting up. He turned around and took a step then remembered something. "Oh yes…"

Orochimaru quickly sat back down very close to Nagato and acted very youthfully. "You would not believe the person I ran into in. Let's see, about four weeks ago I was down in Colima, down in the Bellas forma taking some pictures when the strangest man approached me."

"Who was it?" Nagato said somewhat unnerved.

"Nine." Orochimaru whispered like it was a secret. He smiled excitedly and fidgeted. "He gave me this lovely new body, well, revamped. It feels like I'm a teenager again, and the best part, I won't need another one for fifty years."

"That's disgusting… It must be what Madara's after…" Nagato commented and turned to see Kabuto walk up behind his master and just stand there. "Well, are you going to be useful or just stand there?"

"He's very impatient." Kabuto noted. With a flick of a wrist a scalpel was in his hand eagerly waiting for blood. "Do we need him around anymore?"

"You're impatient yourself, Kabuto. Why don't you go have a seat and watch over our young friend over there." Orochimaru said and clamped his hands together. "Now, Nine told me something interesting, it seems you've been snooping around Mexico leaving him little notes. He doesn't like that. He feels it invades his privacy, showing his old photo to bartenders."

"That's Madara's business, not mine. You know that." Nagato said and looked past him at Sasuke. Sasuke was out cold, breathing steadily in the state of unconsciousness. "What's your intention with Sasuke, not that it's really any of my business. I just figured you'd grown out of little boys."

"You make me sound like a pedo. I don't rape them, only structurally alter their DNA. Well…" Orochimaru said and smiled, "Itachi's grown old, too old for him to be of any use if I could capture him. Little boys are more… prone to rebound. Plus…"

Orochimaru's face soured. "That bastard ruined my career… So now I'm going to ruin him piece by piece." He laughed in a cold solitude made of him and his goals. He was forced to stop however and looked up from across the room pouting. There standing with a clenched fist and a gruff scowl was Nagato fully recovered. He quickly dropped his lab coat and removed his holster tossing his gun away. "You're unparalyzed already? So mean Nagato."

"I originally was just going to toss you out and tell you to give me some information, however do to certain 'agreements,'" He cooed darkly. Quickly he cracked his knuckles than calmly pulled out to brown contacts. He looked straight with purple eyes at the despicable man. "I'm going to have to kill you, and yes, I will make it hurt."

"You did a little altering Nagato." Orochimaru stood up and brushed his tee-shirt off. "I look foreword to finding out what it is."

----------( blAck bIrd )---------

"More leaves here, here and here." Jugo said pointing to the rose Tayuya had on her thigh. She giggled and blushed and than agreed. Since Tayuya was off today and was paying she got to pick her artist, which of corse was Jugo. The display was noticed by everyone except Jugo who was wholly focused on the leaves. He got out a pencil and began sketching them on. "You should be having Jirobo do the clean up, he's better with leaves."

"He'd mess it up on purpose." Tayuya said waving off the idea. "You wouldn't do that to me, would you?"

"No, I'd get sued." Jugo said ignoring another advance. He finished and looked at it. "How's that?"

"That's good." She said barely looking at them. She looked around to see Sakon and Ukon making kissy faces at her in a mockery. "You two assheads better stop that shit up or I'll come over there and tattoo I'm with asshole on both your foreheads!"

"So touchy." Sakon laughed and turned the radio on ignoring her. It wasn't long into the newscast that jugo sighed. "What's up?"

"A fire at the college in the science building… Sounds like the kids." He shook his head and grabbed the gun. Without notice he grabbed her thigh and she flipped. He quickly removed his hand wondering what was wrong. "Do you not want tattooed than?"

"Um, no… It's just… I was…"

"Day dreaming dirty things?" Ukon interrupted. The twins laughed and high fived each other. Tayuya grabbed the gun from Jugo and began walking over to them.


	37. Scare Tactics

"Kabuto, leave…" Orochimaru said surprisingly. Kabuto raised a hand and let out a questioning noise, knowing how situations escalate quickly. Orochimaru waved him off, and gave him a glare that would scare small children. Kabuto just nodded and slowly walked out of the room wanting to shake his head in disappointment. He closed the door, the clicking of it ringing in his ears. Kabuto crossed his arms and began to doubt his master's abilities purely on age.

It was then he saw a pretty red haired girl in a tattered sweater walk up to a wall just outside the hallway doors. She turned calmly and waited watching something or someone. She adjusted her glasses once or twice nervously fidgeting, legs shuffling balance back and forth. When the timing was appropriate she turned around and yanked with serious purpose on the bright red handle of the fire alarm. She than rushed away down the hall, that was when Kabuto heard the deep locking noise from the lab door nearly over shadowed by the blaring fire alarm. Frantically grabbing it he tugged and tugged but the door was sealed and wouldn't budge. He was locked away from Orochimaru, he couldn't assist if his master needed it.

"Safety precaution. All laboratory doors lock and are sealed with lead due to the highly dangerous and possibly explosive chemicals contained inside. Without the addition of extra oxygen, the chance that the labs will catch fire is less, and even more less that they will explode causing major damage." A door sealed behind the voice as Konan walked out of a lab in her coat. She took two steps in her heels and tossed her lab coat off. "The fire alarm is a distraction tactic by Itachi Uchiha in an attempt to secure Sasuke Uchiha, and you're sealed off now in this hallway."

"Sealed? Air tight as well?" Kabuto said and watched as the pair of fire proof doors closed off the hallway. He back up too the doors and looked out the window of the door to see Itachi glaring back at him. Suddenly he was gone and you could hear bullets being shot into the door.

"There's a ventilation system, don't worry, they won't suffocate. Everything is bullet proof as well. Madara made a great plea to the board about how we might be the victim of a horrible crime and how our implements of science could be used by terrorists. They gave at terrorists of course not knowing his true intention." Konan said and pulled a gun from the back of her black pencil skirt. She aimed it with skill at his head. "However, air's not bullet proof."

---------( blAck bIrd)---------

"So, why purple eyes?" Orochimaru asked smiling whimsically. He flipped his hair from his face and casually put his hands together leaving the pointer fingers up patting against his lip. "Is it another thing to try and entrance Konan to stay with you? She's been horribly flighty ever since what's his face died."

"Konan will never leave me." Nagato said partially upset. Orochimaru could tell he had touched the right subject by the way Nagato's knuckles began to whiten. "Unlike you, I have someone who actually loves me. It makes a huge character difference… Having someone who loves you. Of course, now I'm just preaching to a black hearted snake, why waste time on that?"

"You've been around Sasori too much, his sense of always being in a rushing is tacking on." Orochimaru said standing up slowly. He quickly leaned back some stretching and cracking his back. He stood up and than ducked right down to dodge a blow from Nagato. Going up Orochimaru grabbed his arm, Nagato broke it and tried a counterattack by punching him in the face. Orochimaru slid across the floor, caught his hand on a tile and flipped over landing on his feet. "Unlike Sasori however, you're not very good at strategy. He wouldn't have dropped his gun, he would have saved it for good times to shoot, like just than instead of punching me in the face."

"Well… To be truthful… I kind of want to just beat on you." Nagato said and ran over to him fist reeled back. He tossed it and Orochimaru's head ducked to the left of it meeting Nagato's left knee. Orochimaru went flying into the cupboards ruining them and what they contained. He quickly got up and cracked his neck into a better condition. He quickly dusted himself off and than cracked his knuckles. "And personally, I think it's working pretty well."

"You're failing to see the overall problem to your actions, Nagato. While I maintain my stamina, you've been wasting yours. You won't last much longer, after all, you don't have the knowledge I posses." Orochimaru gloated and began laughing again until he heard gunshots. "Who was that…"

"That would be my girlfriend disposing of your pathetic little lackey." Nagato took up the laughing and watched as Orochimaru's face turned a sour red color from the anger. Nagato took a second to straighten out and adjust his stance. "Not so jolly anymore are we?"

Orochimaru sniffled, than turned to him lack of smile making him seem dangerous. His eyes shimmered a fairy tale-like yellow and he suddenly seemed to change. He calmed, his lips twisting back to their normal small, wicked smile. "Kabuto is a lot harder to kill than you'd suspect."

--------( blAck bIrd)---------

Konan fired off a half a clip at Kabuto, however, she was amazed and slightly upset at what he did. Kabuto jumped from the floor, to than off the wall and landed behind her his eyes flashing a silver color quickly. "Don't tell me, you're one of his guinea pigs right? People so loyal to him that they're stupid enough to volunteer for such a high level of experimentation are his playthings. They must be insane. He always did like to surround himself with guinea pigs. How like him…"

"Brilliant, you mean. Yes, it was a bit of a risk going under hours of painful genetic mutation, but brilliant nonetheless. You'll never be able to shoot me. Your reflexes are still human, and humanity can't beat evolution." Kabuto smiled and fixed his glasses upon his face. "Now, you're Konan right? Orochimaru said you were always filling the room with paper sculptures. Said it was where your true passion was. How'd you end up as a chick that looks like she works for Umbrella Corp?"

"Things happen, people change." Konan said lightly. Kabuto turned away for a second to see something coming at him fast. He was barely able to dart out of the way to see several paper shuriken being controlled by strings move past. He turned around and looked at her landing a few feet off center. Konan smiled wickedly reeling the thinly weapons in. "You forgot I came from that way… you also didn't examine the trash cans. And you also didn't look at the side of your neck."

She pulled a paper shuriken up to eye level for him to see. It shined with liqid in the lights of the hallway and than dripped on the floor a dark red threat. Kabuto clasped his hands around his neck and pulled back to show that both sides were bleeding. His hands covered in blood he laughed. "That's very impressive, though a few paper cuts aren't going to slow me down."

"They will eventually." Konan smiled and dropped her paper shuriken to the ground. "This is a section of laboratories where we experiment on people; you think I wouldn't have something up my sleeve? You obviously need to be better trained since it's brazenly obvious that an opponent would do something like that. They have razors coated with Thiopental that come out when moved at high speeds. It's a small dose of Barbiturate, but concentrated. Luckily we don't stock pancuronium bromide."

"Well, that's a relief. At least I know I won't be dying by… You still have a gun." Kabuto realized and felt his breathing slowly start to decrease. He pulled a small tablet out of his pocket and held it up to her. She looked at him with no emotion and watched as he swallowed it. He held his hand to his mouth as to make sure he wouldn't be coughing it up.

"You better hope that's fast dissolving." Konan said and raised her gun to his eye level again. She squeezed the trigger but than realized she had shot into the air. He had pulled another stunt and by the time she had tried to turn around, she felt a hand over her mouth and nose. Kabuto pushed her against the wall with a few steps and smiled as her look turned to panic. Her hand and nails went to digging into his skin, but he seemed not to notice, or care. '_Shit, he can't feel a damn thing! That's why he didn't notice the razors cut him until I told him. Even if a bullet hit him, he wouldn't feel it and slow down._'

"Now, drop the gun." Kabuto said calmly. Konan scowled and complied quickly her breathing having been cut off. Kabuto lowered his hand letting her breath out of her nose and went to kick the gun away but noticed his legs lack of discipline. "Looks like your medicine has started to take effect. I'll have to watch out for that during our next battle. I give."

Letting go of her Kabuto took one step back and dragged his other foot back. He raised his hands in surrender and than noticed he was turning the center band on a ring. Suddenly a bright gas exploded from it and as soon as it was done they both started hacking. Kabuto simply sat down scooting to the opposite wall and just stared as Konan slowly sunk to the floor. "Bastard…"

"There's no need to be rude about it. It's just that I would prefer a draw to a loss." Kabuto kept couching and soon passed out. Konan shoved her lab coat over her mouth realizing she was trapped. Fading fast she grabbed her gun and shot at the lab window. Managing to squeeze off three rounds she fell unconscious letting the gun drop heavily in her lap, barrel still warm from firing.

--------( blAck bIrd)---------

Least to say neither Orochimaru nor Nagato was too hasty about learning about the others genetic advancements. However it was Orochimaru, more steady in his confidence, which began to initiate the fight. "Seriously Nagato, do you honestly think you can beat a body by Nine? This body is more advanced than anything you've ever seen."

"Well, considering the bastard's psychotic, not really, but as soon as the alarms done and over with you're going to have a way bigger problem than me." Nagato said and carefully stomped on the tip of his gun showing through his holster and propelled it in the air. Grabbing it his pulled it from the casing and shot at Orochimaru around the room. He had chased Orochimaru into a corner by the cupboards. He stopped and aimed. "Here's how it's going to go… I'm going to see what I can do to damage your body and let him take care of the rest."

"I'm bored of you…" Orochimaru said calmly. Suddenly Nagato found himself on the floor with a slithery white hand around his neck. Orochimaru shook his head and 'tsk'-ed at the researcher. "First off, you see that child up there… on the slab. See him. I want him."

Nagato turned to see Sasuke was still out like a light. He turned back nearly growling but the hand sunk deeper and he realized he had stopped breathing. Nagato began clawing at the hand but it wasn't helping at all, he felt like he was digging at scales. "This 'him' your talking about I suppose would be big brother raging at the thought of his little Sasuke being injured. Itachi's just as pathetic as you are, however he…

"He is truly magnificent, truly. He has a will to kill, and as such, I think he could use a little boost. Of course, I'm going to do it in a way suiting my mannerism. A gentleman like state of perfection and simplicity." Orochimaru looked up at the table, smiled adoringly and quickly punched Nagato rendering him unconscious. Getting up he patted off the germs he felt were on the labs floor and heard gun shots. He saw the breaks in the first few layers of glass and shrugged. "Told him Kabuto wouldn't go down that easily."

Positioning himself into what he presumed would be Sasuke's first vision Orochimaru waited… and waited. After about three minutes and growing impatient of watching the boy agitatedly squirm, he shook him. "I'm not waking up yet bastard… go wake up Suigetsu first."

Sasuke turned in the straps and managed to roll over somehow. In his awkward position Sasuke managed to shield his eyes again and quickly fell asleep. He shook him once more in an attempt to make contact, however it just seemed to piss him off. Orochimaru sighed. "Teenagers…"

Sasuke jolted awake at the voice he didn't recognize. He quickly looked around and spotted the man. There stood a tall lean figure who looked like he hadn't left his basement in years. His hair was finely brushed to his waist in a brand new white suit. "You look silly in that."

"Aw, you don't like it? And it's Italian silk…" Orochimaru cooed playfully. He tugged at the sleeves of the shirt beneath the jacket arranging it to something more comfortable than continued. "I got it just for this, after all, wouldn't want to make a bad first impression, would we?"

"Who are you and why am I on a table? Is this scare tactics? If so I'm _going to_ kill you." Sasuke warned getting angry. The cuffs didn't move or rattle as he tried to get his wrists out. "You guys are really going all out on this, did Madara set me up? He'd do something like this."

"No, this isn't a TV show… but I like the enthusiasm." Orochimaru said and sat down on the edge of the table. He smiled at the memories of seeing Itachi on a table and the joy of experimentations. He was almost tempted to grab some of the surrounding equipment and get to work already. However, Orochimaru contained himself and crossed his arms glaring with intent to hurt him. "So you're Sasuke Uchiha, Itachi's baby brother. Not much of kid anymore, are you?"

"You must be that creepy bastard that everyone's trying to shoot in the head. You're not very popular around here, is that why he's out cold on the floor?" Sasuke asked observantly. Orochimaru winced in agitation quickly but turned to a calm reserve and wasn't allowed to get a word in. "You know, he's going to be pissed when he wakes up, and more or less, Madara's going to go fuckin' psycho and might do the head on a pike thing, which will make me go to his salmon mansion more often. I think it'd be entertaining."

Orochimaru slapped a hand over his mouth. He sighed and shook his head. He so clearly remembered how much Itachi talked during the periods where he had pissed him off. "You're just like your brother, you don't shut up. Now, I am going to make this simple and than release you. My name's Orochimaru, I'm a scientist. I used to work here under Madara until that bastard tried to kill me, and I think we can help each other out."

Orochimaru removed his hand and watched Sasuke. The young Uchiha blinked and looked off into the distance still in a conundrum over Nagato on the floor. Madara had warned him about this guy, which meant he could be talked to, however, so did Itachi. It was that part in where Sasuke fell confused. "What do you mean? How could you possibly help me?"

"Well, for starters, I can make you stronger, better, faster, you know, that whole chestnut. But, beyond that, I know you're looking for something… Something to do with your parents I believe." Sasuke's face went blank, Orochimaru knew he had struck a cord. "There's something too that, isn't there? What is it you inquired to the police?"

"Hm…" Sasuke frowned. Orochimaru pressed the release button under the table and clicks went out to the belts holding him down. Sasuke sat up and caught the encroaching man out of the corner of his eye. He turned away and than quickly shoved a hand out pushing Orochimaru back a couple steps. "I believe… You should get lost before one of my family members gets in here to kick your ass."

"Oh come now, I already know, I know everything, and unlike your brother, I am more than willing to share my knowledge of what really happened that night." Orochimaru said and carefully flicked a lock of Sasuke's hair out of his face. "That's right, you big brother hasn't been sharing, that's not very nice of him, and guess what, neither has Madara… You're 'family'… is a bunch of liars and murdering thieves."

"At least they don't look like they've been hibernating in their mother's basement since '82." Sasuke laughed. He was interrupted by Orochimaru grabbing his throat and holding him to the table. After a few minutes of Sasuke struggling he stopped needing to breath.

"Now," Orochimaru said loosing the grip and than reestablishing it on his chin. Sasuke squirmed a bit and grasped at his hands in a vain attempt to free himself from the snake like man. He kept struggling and tearing at the large white hand until he realized it was futile. "We're not going to try that again are we? No, we're not that stupid… I hope. I mean, you're brother was so compliant."


	38. Stupid Flashbacks

Hello there I just wanted to put a note, I have gotten a review, which I think is fantastic which I want you all to read about this chapter:

Have you been hacked? Since this chapter is of poor standard compared to the  
others and the title of the story has been changed

This is the review I want, it will help me grow as a writer, also not hacked, title was my idea when I was tinkering around the office. It also made me take a third look at things and notice there were inexcusable spelling errors that I should have caught and that is my mistake and I apologize. I did have a great deal of difficulty with this chapter for some reason taking six days to write 3000 words, it was just not resonating. Also another review made me look at the ending, once again FF went 'I don't like Word' and botched the ending taking the rest of the paragraph away. I also would like to say if you find anything that doesn't flow doesn't make sense, mail me, let me know. This story is for you guys, I write it for you guys.

* * *

Karin huddled the large ripped black sweater to her chest with one arm. Strolling calmly she made her way through the crowd of white lab coats to the far wall. She turned waiting for everyone to file in and take a good position. Next to her sat the common bright red fire alarm, shimmering in the florescent light. Karin took a deep breath and shoved her glasses back up on top of her nose.

She shifted her weight watching as Itachi took a position next to Kisame with Naruto hidden behind them. Across the way was Deidara and Sasori, the teacher's hand resting on the doorknob and slowly opening. Directly across the way from her was Suigetsu, and having nothing better to do, was making faces at her and passing students.

After a minute Itachi looked towards her and nodded. Karin nodded back quickly and wrapped her hand inside of Suigetsu's old sweater. She sighed and pulled the alarm. Shuffling away quickly, Suigetsu grabbed her and held her against the wall while a flood of students from different floors came charging out. They watched as the men and women tripped over themselves getting out, and than how all the door shut and locked automatically.

"It's the fire precaution for the labs. We'll need to shut that down before we get anywhere." Kisame noted and looked as Sasori had already thought of that. He bowed to them smiling and disappeared into the basement with a brick in front of the door. "Well… He knows what he's doing."

Itachi crossed over to the lab doors and looked in to see something unpleasant staring back at him. He tried tugging at it a few futile times before pulling out his gun and shooting at the lock. Nothing seemed to work, and that only pissed him off. He turned around flinging the gun to the ground which Suigetsu quickly snatched. He quickly shoved it in the back of his pants and watched as the older brother stomped into the middle of the room. Itachi looked at Kisame and screamed. "Kabuto's in there!"

"What?" Said a voice echoing over the room, it stopped in a surprising silence. Itachi heard it and stopped as Madara descended slowly down the stairs. "Did you just say that Kabuto was in there? AS IN… Orochimaru has Sasuke!?"

"This is all your fault, Madara, if you had left him at school he would be safe…" Itachi said and realized he didn't have his gun to shoot him. "Why the Hell did you take him anyway! What part of… "

"First off, stop yelling at me, I'm your elder." Madara corrected as if the situation was under control. He sat down calmly on the steps, a cup of coffee in his hand. "Secondly, I've tried to go through and I've have tried to explained this to him, I thought I explained it to you as well. Sasuke is my heir, he's going to get everything, whether you like it or not. I'm okay with him being gay, Hell, if he wants to dress up in women's clothing best to him, but in thought processes and revenge he is just… like… me."

"Okay, first off, Sasuke wouldn't go around in women's clothing. Secondly, he's nothing like you, killing all those people for some stupid cause." Naruto interrupted stepping out. He was about to rush the stairs but Kisame's hand on his shoulder easily held him back. Naruto looked up at him and saw Kisame shake his head.

"Why's everybody yelling, like this will help, we have to wait until someone unlocks all the doors before we can do anything?" Madara said and took a sip of his coffee. He waited while the room calmed down. "Now, Itachi, I borrowed your brother for a talk, and figured I'd get him up-to-date on all his shots while he was here. He, like you, was arguing me all the way… He even told me to burn at the stake, ungrateful brat. After all I do for him…

Itachi smiled and shoved his hands into his pants' pockets. He took a second to laugh before happily looking up at Madara with a face that was victorious. "Well duh, he's my brother you idiot. Can you honestly say that you were expecting anything else from him?"

"Did you know he smokes?" Madara asked like he hadn't just heard his eldest nephew. Itachi nodded. "You knew and you didn't stop him?"

"He doesn't listen to me about that type of stuff." Itachi muttered and watched as Madara stood up and stretched. "Anyway, don't change the subject."

"I'm not changing the subject."

"You are too!" Itachi yelled getting pissed. Kisame just shook his head and knelt down next to Naruto. "Get by the hall doors, be ready to fight or grab and run, alright. I'm going to watch them argue."

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

The basement looked very clean. Maybe it was due to the fact that it was completely painted brown with red emergency lights disguising the blood. It was hard to see anything down there, but Sasori kept straight before hitting a room to the left and shooting the lock. "Deidara, stay here and watch for people, it's going to take a few minutes."

"That's right; leave me in the creepy ass hallway… You guys don't by chance keep zombies down here?" Deidara asked as Sasori disappeared into the black. There was a flicker of light as he brought the system from sleep. Deidara pulled out his gun nervously. "Do you?"

"No, you've been playing to many video games. Zombies aren't real yet." Sasori said calmly than began typing furiously opening various programs. Deidara turned his focus back on his original goal and silently paced away setting something small down in the dim lights and stringing it with copper wire. "Deidara… what are you doing?"

"How the Hell did you hear that?" Deidara yelled standing up and marching back over to the doorframe to look in, Sasori was still typing away.

"I didn't, I have you on surveillance." He nodded to a camera in the upper corner and than switched it's picture. There was a young Sasuke being held down on a table single-handedly by a slender, decrepit: "Traitor… Deidara, that's the guy you can blow up."

"The guy holding down Itachi's punk brother." Deidara snickered trying to get a good look at him. He watched as Orochimaru let Sasuke up and said something else. "Don't these monitor's have sound? We're missing what's being said."

"Doesn't matter…" Sasori said and suddenly the lights all came back on with a loud clicking noise through the building. Sasori quickly got up and began out of the room and took a quick glance behind him to see what Deidara had set down. He turned away for a second before realizing what it was. "Now… Is that a bomb Deidara?"

"Well… I just thought… Madara's an asshole; I'm going to set up more charges." Deidara said passing over giving Sasori any excuses. He walked straight over to it and knelt down next to the explosive and attached another copper wire to it. "So, aren't you going to yell at me or something?"

"No, only that you should put it where it would do the most damage. These walls aren't going to be that bad when it goes off." Sasori said and walked over to a large metal door with several various warning signs on it. He pulled out a key ring and unlocked it. "You should put them in here."

"What's in there?" Deidara asked picking the small bomb up and walking over to the door. He read a few of the labels not understanding until he saw what was inside. Sasori opening it and Deidara was like a kid in a candy store. "Is that a giant tank of NO2?"

"I'm not sure why Madara keeps Nitrous Oxide, but you're free to detonate it." Sasori said and began pulling more canisters down from various shelves lining the room. "I have things to go get out of my office, make sure to alert everyone and get them out before setting it off."

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

Sasuke felt like he had been hit upside the head with a brick. Dizzy, he sat up off the table from the lack of air when Orochimaru had pinned him to the table. He took a second to look around the room; the man was gone, the window broken and door ripped open. He noticed than a plain white card fell from his shoulder to his lap. Putting it in his pocket he took a second. '_What happened…? Where's he go? Why isn't Itachi here?'_

Sasuke slipped one foot off the table and down to the floor not noticing until it was too late that the rest of his body had followed. He hit the floor with a thud and had to grab the hand rails on the bed to attempt to pull himself up. He grabbed it with his left arm, which normally would be more than enough, but he could pull in the slightest. He retracted his arm in pain and grasped it as a shock went through out his body. '_What the fuck did he do to me?'_

Sasuke grunted through the pain in his arm and lifted himself to his feet. He grasped the table with both arms and looked across the room. There on the floor with a little drabble of blood coming from his mouth was the unconscious Nagato. Something about it looked familiar, dark, and terrifying.

_Her body was just lying there on the floor, a small pile of blood near her chest and a little coming from her mouth. Sasuke walked up to her quietly and looked as there was something in her hand she was keeping close to her at death. Nervously he knelt down and pulled it from her hand, opening it. It was a crumpled picture of a young Itachi holding his newborn brother. "Mom…"_

_He looked around and heard a terrible noise. It was a gut wrenching sound from his older brother who had strictly told him to stay outside. Sasuke hurried down the hall. Flinging open the door to his father's office there was Itachi on the ground crying in pain with a gun pointed at his head._

_Sasuke realized where he was, he was on the floor, he looked to Itachi who had pulled him into his lap. His brother was on the phone, crying, with dispatch. Sasuke observed the quiet bodies on the ground. The one who was pointing the gun at Itachi was on the ground, several pens in his neck. Sasuke looked at his hands and saw a mixture of blood and ink on his hands. He turned to his big brother who set down the phone. "Mom's… Dad's…"_

_"It's okay, Sasuke."_ The memory was enough Sasuke almost fell back to the floor. He stopped, awaking from the stupor and latched on to the table for dear life. Either from loss of consciousness, oxygen or mind he began to remember every waking moment, everything that happened in every detail. The weight of the moment returning to the forefront of his mind brought him a great pain. "Damn it…"

Sasuke grabbed the pull bar tightly. Slowly he weaned his legs off it and stood freely, crying. Sasuke grabbed his shoulder and felt it carefully. It wasn't dislocated; he must have done something else to it. "God dam psycho bastards… Why do all the crazy people flock to me?"

Slowly he made his way towards the door, but found it difficult trying to step over Nagato. The clicking of the doors echoed in the area and Sasuke sighed. He walked towards it and opened it slowly. He looked in the hall and laughed. "Great, yea rescue her and just leave me here."

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

"Itachi, you're the one yelling not me. I'm just an old man with two nephews who disrespect me." Madara said in a pity me voice. He shook his head full of disappointment at his former researchers. His expression grew sad as he finally reached the bottom of the stairs. "Really, Itachi, yelling at your poor, old uncle…"

"Shut up!" Itachi bellowed punching him square in the face. Madara fell over landing on a stair catching himself with one hand. "You ignorant, self-centered monstrosity of a human being. I'd kill you myself but I don't want to be like you, full of spite and revenge… The people you hate haven't been alive in ten years and yet you still hold a grudge against something that doesn't exist anymore. Why the Hell can't you see that?"

"It doesn't matter, they ruined everything." Madara screamed. He stood up and pushed Itachi back from him. "Perfect little you, given a great gift by Orochimaru, one that could save lives if you let us help you, but no, you wanted everything reversed. The only thing we haven't been able to figure out is how your damn Irises were stained red! You could hold the key to immortality!"

"HUMANS ARE NOT MEANT TO BE IMMORTAL!" Itachi screeched causing the room to go to a silent halt. Slightly confused and with a developing headache his fingertips slid along his temples and into the thick hair. He grasped his head and sighed than laughed. "You did it… Blasphemy. Actually Heresy, becoming immortal is a sin against God. Souls must go to a destination for judgment."

"It doesn't matter because when the Day of Judgment comes, everyone will be judged, and I will be forgiven for my sins by creating a super race."

"You'll go to Hell for tampering with his work; don't you read the bible you carry around?" Itachi said and crossed his arms. "All you are is a hypocritical bastard and I finally caught you committing Heresy and you won't admit to it."

Kisame was somewhat confused by the argument and couldn't find a way to interrupt as a distraction. Instead he sighed and hoped if he needed to be a distraction, he would be yelled at later for shooting Madara. It was then they heard the doors unlock. Happily the three kids rushed the newly unlocked hall way leaving the two Uchihas in a deadlock battle.

Itachi was fast he moved to kick Madara down with barely being seen, however Madara pulled something entirely expected out. Without hesitation he shot Itachi in the leg. Madara moved down to the bottom step and knelt down starring at Itachi as he screamed in pain. He grabbed his leg and quickly applied as much pressure as he could. He gritted his teeth and tried to steady his breathing. "Oh, did that hurt…?"

There was a loud metal-on-metal noise near him and Madara looked over to see the barrel of a gun being pointed at his head. Madara made a clicking noise. "Come on, Kisame. He's a stupid little kid, are you really going to pick him over me. Think about it, honestly. What does he have over me?"

"He likes my lawn fish ornaments and he gave me a garbage disposal, you've given 13 years of regret." Kisame said defensively. Suddenly Sasori came up from the basement and stopped to glare at them. He starred at them awkwardly and than sighed. Rolling his eyes he walked down an adjacent hall muttering about how everyone has to be dramatic. They all paused to observed the oddity and than went back to their business. "Now…

"All I want is Itachi's bone marrow. I'll give up all legal rights to Sasuke, and give you quite a large sum." Madara offered, "It's quite a good deal, wouldn't you say Itachi. No more movement, no more Madara… No more having to worry about me coming for your little brother."

"I…" Itachi muttered and looked at Kisame hoping for guidance. They were yet again paused by Sasori who came walking out, a teetering box of things in his arms. He looks at them and shook his head. "You all look stupid. Get out of the building soon."

Sasori walked out with the box carefully and left them there again. Madara stopped and scratched his head, he didn't understand why to get out of the building. Kisame and Itachi did, Deidara was alone somewhere in a building full of things that go boom. Kisame quickly lifted the wounded man off the ground and kept the gun pointed steadily at Madara's head. "Why do we have to get out soon?"

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

Naruto burst through the doors the two behind him. They looked around before observing the hall door close opposite of them. Karin looked to her side and saw Konan on the floor. "Looks like she was knocked out. I don't think Sasuke did this though."

"She's hurt." Suigetsu said noting a bit of blood dribbling from her mouth. Suddenly they heard a door open a few feet away and Sasuke slowly moved out. He grabbed the wall, out of breath and tired. He took a second and looked to them. "Great, yea rescue her and leave me here."

He was about to fall over had it not been the fact Naruto ran for him and held him in his arms. Naruto stood there for a minute before Kisame bellowed down the hall. "Get him and get out! Deidara's having play time."

"Playtime?" Naruto asked cutely. Naruto looked over to Karin and Suigetsu who we're trying to get Konan conscious. Neither of them seemed to know what it was either.

Sasuke laughed and whispered to Naruto what it was he was missing. "Deidara's going to blow everything up."

"Oh! Right!" Naruto lugged Sasuke over his should and instructed Karin and Suigetsu to grab Konan. Sasuke fought his way down to the ground and stood brushing himself off.

"I have to get Nagato and his lackeys out." Sasuke said standing up with a great bit of trouble. His face stayed cold as he looked over them. "Just because Madara's their boss doesn't mean we have to let them die… We'll end up like him."


	39. He Left the Keys

"And this one goes here!" Deidara said happily while he placed an explosive in the rack of nitrous oxide tanks. He smiled at his handy work, the strings of copper connecting them all and than finished up with his phone as a timer. He looked it all over twice making sure it would work before he strolled over to the tanks and opened one. He raced out of the room and found his way back up stairs to where he saw Kisame has just picked up Itachi. "Hey guys, I think we should get out of here."

"We need help!" Suigetsu called coming back into the main room. He looked around as Kisame quickly rushed Itachi out making the room nearly empty. "Blondie! Come help us carry people out!"

"There are more people to rescue? Aren't we just rescuing Sasuke?" Deidara complained as he walked across the room to look in the hall. He saw Konan being helped up by Karin and the kids looking at him. "Can't we just let her burn?"

"No, come help us with Nagato and the lackeys, they're unconscious and hurt inside the lab." Sasuke said and stood up against the wall, his face clearly expressing some frustration with his movement.

"Calm down kid, go help Karin with Konan, we'll get them." Deidara said and opened the door putting the stop down. He walked in with Naruto and Suigetsu behind him leaving Sasuke to walk over to Karin and take Konan's other side. "You okay, Sasuke?"

"Yea, just drowsy." He muttered ignoring the extreme pain in his arm. Slowly the two made there way out into the entrance hall and Sasuke saw the blood in a spray pattern. He stopped, halting the operation. "Who was shot?"

"I don't know, I just heard it and someone screaming. We better hurry." Karin said and Sasuke nodded. They made their way over to the door where they encountered a problem. "Um, I'll run and hit the handicap button."

Karin quickly went and hit the bright blue button. When she did the door opened and Sasuke tossed Konan over one shoulder to make his way out, making sure his face was straight and not grimacing from pain. "Come on Karin!"

---------(blAck bIrd)--------

"Please, listen… he's an asshole." Deidara argued as Naruto picked up Hidan and tossed him over a shoulder. Naruto looked at him, "He deserves to die, really he does. He's this super crazy guy who kills for this psychotic Jashin guy. Just leave him."

"Pick that guy up and let's go, no arguing." Naruto said strictly. Deidara looked down at Kakuzu and grabbed him under the arms trying to move him. He ended up walking backwards dragging the man through the entire building, being the last one in.

"No good rotten kid… Doesn't even know who these guys are… World would be better if they all blew up." Deidara hit the doors and pushed it open with his back he quickly hustled out side the doors hitting Kakuzu on the legs. "Sorry. Ah, what do you care, you're out cold, bastard."

"Bring him over here." Karin yelled to Deidara as they set the researchers together. Deidara pulled Kakuzu over and dropped him on top of Hidan. "Good."

"I need a cell phone." Deidara said and looked around. Karin shook her head, Sasuke did too. Suigetsu complained about Kisame never letting him have a phone. Deidara sighed and ran over to Kisame grabbing his phone from his belt. He quickly began dialing as Kisame started to protest. "I'm borrowing this…. And 3…2…Boom!"

Suddenly the building went up in flames. Deidara than raised the phone and turned on the camera function. Kisame grabbed his cell phone back and snapped it shut. "No evidence. Everyone in the cars now! We have to get going."

Kisame said and than grabbed Sasuke dragging him to the trunk of the hummer. He opened it and saw Itachi lying there, swearing lightly under his breath. He held his leg tightly and looked at his baby brother. "Sasuke, get in there and help him with keeping pressure on it."

"Right." Sasuke said and quickly climbed in moving Itachi's hands so he could clamp his down. Kisame shut the door and made sure everyone else was put somewhere, Sasori already having left gave room to everyone in the hummer.

Naruto popped his head over the back of the seat. He looked at Itachi and saw the blood on his pants. "You got shot?"

"Turn around and sit down!" Sasuke snapped at him. "We're speeding out of the parking lot of a building we just blew up. Now is not the time to be reckless."

"Sasuke, cool it. Everything will be fine." Itachi said and he reached up and ruffled Naruto's hair. "Yea, I got shot… but I got him back. I shot Madara in the shoulder with Kisame's gun, I think he just made it to the medical building…I still left my gun though."

"No, ya didn't." Suigetsu muttered and reached in his pants to pull the gun out. He carefully held it over the seat giving it back to Itachi. Itachi looked at it and shoved it in the holster. "I have a bad habit of pocketing weapons people leave lying around."

"Thank god." Itachi muttered when they heard Kisame yell for them to brace. Suigetsu started panicking and buckling everyone up. Sasuke and Itachi both pressed their bodies hard against the opposing sides of the hummer and felt them hit the curve hard.

"Holy shit, what are you doing? You drive worse than Itachi!" Deidara shouted. "You're going over 100, we're going to crash!"

"I swear to god, I'll toss you out of the car at speed if you don't shut up!" Kisame yelled and they hit another hard curve. Suddenly Kisame stopped the car and Karin looked out the window. She turned to them as Kisame got out, "We're at Jugo's tattoo parlor."

"Sweet…" Suigetsu said and unbuckled himself and climbed out over Karin. He walked in casually and waved at Jugo who looked up from his work on Tayuya's thigh. "Hey Jugo, what's up?"

"Not much…" He stopped as Kisame carried Itachi with Sasuke close on his heels. Kisame set Itachi down and turned to Jugo waving him over. Jugo looked at Itaci's leg and inquired. "What happened to you guys?"

"Not now, I need anything that will disinfect. Suigetsu, knife." Kisame said as Jugo grabbed a bottle and a cloth. Suigetsu dug in his pants producing five, he went through and gave Kisame the one with the smallest blade. Kisame cut Itachi's pants open and let Jugo apply the disinfectant. Within a few seconds Kisame was digging for the bullet in Itachi's leg.

Sasuke stood by Itachi the entire time, watching and holding his hand. After a minute of pain Itachi passed out and Kisame popped the bullet out. Kisame grabbed the bullet and picked Itachi back up. "Sorry for bothering you."

"It's fine, Kisame. I guess I'll get caught up when my shift is done." Jugo said as they began to leave. Suigetsu on the other hand was busy starring at the wall and found something awesome. "Jugo, can I get this one, the one with the swords."

"No more tattoos until you're eighteen." Kisame said holding the door open. He nodded to Suigetsu waiting. Suigetsu stomped his foot in frustration and walked out upset whining, "But Dad!"

"Stop calling me that!" Kisame yelled as the door shut. Tayuya sat up and laughed a bit. "Man Jugo, I thought you had some weird friends, and I knew they were dangerous, but damn, bullets. That's hardcore."

"No, that's a problem." He said starting the motor of the tattooing machine. Grabbing his tattooing gun back up and he grabbed her thigh scaring her. "Are you okay?"

"Yea, yea… It's just…" She said blushing. She stopped when she heard snickering from Sakon and Ukon. "You spineless bastards! Want to make something? Do you? You worthless shits!"

"Aw… I think she's mad…" Sakon hissed and turned smiling to his brother. Ukon nodded and laughed. "I agree, women usually do that…" "It's all because of her stupid little crush on Jugo…"

Tayuya blushed and did the only thing she could think of. She scowled and quietly walked into the back office to be alone. Jugo stood up and looked at them. "Stop being assholes."

"Hey, wait Jugo!" Sakon said trying to stop him but he walked passed them. He knocked on the door to the office and waited for the door to open. Tayuya opened it about to yell at the person who was going to bother her. She stopped and saw Jugo's huge hand land on her head, "The machine's still running…"

---------(blAck bIrd)--------

"Yes, no, I'm not sure where he is. I've already given you everything, and if not, the dean of medical has it. I can't do that…" Deidara said and hung up the pay phone outside of the parlor as the rest of the Black Birds came walking out. Deidara followed them into the hummer and waited silently for Kisame to drive off. Instead Kisame got in and stared at him. "Hm?"

"Who did you call?" Kisame asked curiously.

"The police. I dropped off all the information to lock Madara away at the dean's office, told her to keep quiet about it. I think she appreciated it." Deidara said happily and twiddled his thumbs most contently.

"Right…" Kisame started the hummer and took off down the street. They stayed quiet through the ride to Black Bird except when Naruto turned around to check on Sasuke. Sasuke was mostly preoccupied with holding his unconscious brother in his arms but turned and smiled at him.

"I'm sorry I snapped." Sasuke uttered softly and offered his boyfriend his hand. Naruto smiled and took it interlocking their fingers. Naruto turned back around keeping his arm behind the seat so he could stay connected to Sasuke, who just sat in the trunk blushing brightly.

When they arrived at Black Bird they found that Sasori wasn't there, and more importantly, Itachi was bleeding heavier. Kisame was the one to take him from Sasuke and toss him over his shoulder. Kisame without a word disappeared into the entrance house. Naruto climbed over the seat and exited out of the trunk with Sasuke. "Why's Kisame so worried about your brother."

"They're best friends, and more or less, Kisame wouldn't have anyone to talk to if it wasn't for Itachi." Sasuke said and watched as Suigetsu came to stand next to him. He placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder and pointed to where Kisame was and than to them. "I know; it's us in five years. One's completely malicious and the other out of it most of the time."

"Yea, want to know something cooler? Kisame left his keys in the hummer." Karin said leaning out of the hummer with them. "And so we don't get in more trouble than it's worth, Deidara's offered to chaperone us just so we have a gun."

"Where are we going than?" Naruto asked as they all turned around. Suigetsu grabbed the keys and hopped in the driver's seat. He smiled and shut the door. Naruto turned to Sasuke and looked for help but Sasuke smiled and dragged him back into the car.

"Isn't it obvious?" Sasuke asked him. "We had trouble at school, I was kidnapped, than kidnapped again, rescued, my brother was shot, Deidara blew up a building and than got Madara arrested, and now we're stealing a car. We're going to get cake."

---------(blAck bIrd)--------

"Two of everything on the desert menu please, and feel free to bring it as it finishes." Sasuke said handing off the menus to the waitress. She made a comment to them about how much food they go through and walking away with everybody laughing. "Now Deidara, have you ever eaten here before?"

"No, I usually just make food at home… Well, Sasori's house." He said and scratched the top of his head. He looked around and than turned back to them. "So, with two of everything… How much does this usually cost?"

"Um… last time it was 137 or 138, but double, that's 270-something. Doesn't matter, because this is on Madara." Sasuke said and pulled out a smooth black wallet and pulled out a black credit card. "I swiped it when he kidnapped me, a little trick I learned from Suigetsu. We also have…. My school picture?"

Naruto looked at it and nodded. "Yep, that's you. Wonder why he has that in there?"

"Because he's a creepy old git who thinks I'm amazing." Sasuke said and pulled out the next thing, "He has a Hooters gift card? Those poor girls…"

"He is creepy." Karin said and watched as Deidara swiped it. He shoved it away into his pocket and smiled waiting for the waitress to come back. Karin shook her head. "You just made yourself creepy."

"I'm not creepy, I'm slightly perverted." Deidara corrected happily. Sasuke kept going through pulling things out. "Picture of his cat, picture of his cat, several business cards, library card, and four more credit cards are all that I have left of him, thank God. Hey, sweet, money."

"How much? And is there a quarter, I want a gumball." Suigetsu asked leaning across the table. Sasuke dug through it and shook his head. Suigetsu sat back disappointed and glared out the window. "I wonder how pissed Madara's going to be?"

"Doesn't matter, there's steel bars and reinforced concrete between us now. Look." Sasuke said as he pointed up to the TV hanging above the counter.

Madara was being led out live in handcuffs from the medical building, Tsunade and Shizune standing proudly in the background. "_Hi, Su Chang here live in from of the 1800 building, where Dean of Sciences, Madara Uchiha, is being arrested on over 400 charges of kidnapping, Murder in the first, second and third degrees, false imprisonment, assault and battery. This came after an anonymous source left over 9000 pages of work history detailing the gruesome experimentation of college students and the elderly." _

"Bastard deserves it." Deidara muttered. "_Not a half an hour ago a large scale fight erupted at the Sciences building, leading to the explosion of the building. None were hurt from the blast however, from the fighting, Uchiha was shot in the shoulder, and two other men were seriously injured with several broken bones. All are being taken to Konoha General."_

"Dude, you're pictures up there!" Suigetsu said loudly. Sasuke snapped his eyes to the TV. "_Standing to inherit everything left behind by Uchiha when his likely conviction goes through for life in prison is his nephew and ward, a junior at West View, Sasuke. From public files, it looks like his inheritance stands to be a mansion and 10s of millions from sales of Uchiha's science books, which we have learn have sky rocketed in the past few hours. Reporting from the 1800 building, I'm Su Chang."_

"I'm a millionaire…" Sasuke said sinking back into the booth seat. He smiled and thought for a second before smiling. "We are all going to Cancun for spring break."

"Jugo would never let me." "Kisame would have a cow." "Jiraiya would actually ground me." "I'll go!" Deidara said happily. "I love Cancun, you can get all this super cheat shit there. I also don't have any parents keeping me from going."

"Lucky… Hey, you want Kisame. You can just have him." Suigetsu offered. As the waitress came back with a tray full of plates Sasuke sat back up. She set them down and went back to the kitchen promising more soon.

"Cake…" Karin said grabbing the triple fudge. It was than a phone rang. They all stopped to figure out where it was coming from when Naruto pulled his phone out. He answered with a quarried look it seeing 'Sasuke' pop on screen and got this back: "YOU STUPID ASS PUNKS, YOU STOLE MY HUMMER!"

"It's for you." Naruto said calmly as he handed the phone over to Suigetsu.

---------(blAck bIrd)--------

Madara was peaceful as he left the hospital and was escorted past lines of photographers and reporters. He looked to the police and asked him to stop and looked straight at the camera, "Kid, make sure you have yourself checked out, traitor is sneaky. Broadcast that on all the channels. Make sure he gets that."

"Come on." The cop said and they went into the police wagon. Madara sat down with the guard next to him and waited. "So… You really killed over 400 people."

"All in the name of science. I'm trying to find immortality." Madara said calm as day. The guard scoffed as if Madara had said something stupid. "You think I jest sir, but I assure you, I'm trying to find it but someone's already discovered it."

The ride to the station was short. Madara cooperated completely while greeting and being greeted by officers everywhere, recognizing many of them from when he took in Itachi and Sasuke. His prints were taken, along with pictures and he went into an interrogation room.

The police chief came in and sat down. "Why the Hell would you do something like that Madara? We've got evidence up the wazoo of everyone involved and what you've done, minus a few things. A few names blurred out here and there. Mind filling them in?"

"I'll give you the names of the people who helped me the most, but those who I picked on, made to work, and protested me, I won't name... I've got to remain somewhat likable or it won't work out, you see." He said stiffly and sat back. The door opened and two cups of coffee were brought in. "Thank you. I must say you all have kept your manners."

"Names." The chief said impatient. He pulled out a pen and a piece of paper and slide them to Madara. Madara grabbed the pen thinking how fast he could fling it in the chiefs neck and escape. He didn't though, he would be gunned down outside. Quickly scribbling them he gave both back and began to sip politely at the coffee. "Nagato… Unconsious in the hospital, Konan, also, along with Hidan and Kakuzu, however, number five, we don't have him."

"Ah, he's a tricky little snake. Likes to hang around in dark allies. By the way, if you find him, let me kill him. He hasn't worked for me in a while, but he hasn't stopped doing what I did, on a very much larger scale." Madara took another sip. "He's the Cardiac Murder."

"He's the one who killed off the entire town? You knew who he was all along?" The chief said in disbelief. Madara sat back and smiled, a sick twisted little smile.


	40. Mister Teddy Ku ku ku

**I'd like to thank KoTenshi for helping me with the French! :) Merci!**

**Just a note, I've gotten some people thinking the story is over, the story isn't over, not by a long shot. You have many more months of Black Bird enjoyment, there is just a period of happiness (Like those breaks in final fantasy and than the bad guys comes back and he's like 'Is still alives beotches'). HAPPY SUPERBOWL! GO COMMERCIALS! Yes I root for the commercials.**

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"_**One message, Monday, 1:42 PM.**__ Uncle Sasori, it's Temari. I was at lunch and I saw the building on fire. Call me or one of the knuckles heads the MINUTE you get this, we're all worried sick._" Sasori picked up his phone and hit redial to get the teen's voicemail. "Hey, it's Sasori, I'm alright, and I'll be on my cell for the next couple days. Oh, remind Kankuro about getting FASFA done. Bye."

Sasori picked up a few things from his house and left leaving his office items scattered about his house as if they had always been there. He drove to Black Bird to find himself behind Kisame's large hummer. He locked the doors and went inside to find the basement in a dismal mood. "How's Itachi?"

"He'll be okay; he woke up a while ago." Kisame said and watched as Suigetsu and Karin came downstairs. Kismae pointed a finger at the pale boy and grimaced. "You, come here. We need to talk."

"I think we should go somewhere else." Karin said grabbing Deidara and waving Sasori over. They disappeared upstairs as Suigetsu sat down in front of Kisame on the coffee table. He crossed his legs and peacefully laid his hands on his knees. "I know, I'm in a shit load of trouble. I know I shouldn't take your hummer, especially without a license. And yes I know, stop swearing it looks like I don't have vocabulary. Did I just save us sometime?"

"Stop being a smart ass on top of that, Suigetsu." Kisame said and put his hands together sitting forward. "I know we don't get along, but you can at least act cordially. I'm not sure why you don't like me…"

"I like you, what are you talking about? I just hate all your rules; I'm more of the 'go with whatever suits my fancy.' Aren't you that type of person too Kisame?" Suigetsu asked pulling out a water bottle to chug part of it. Kisame nodded somewhat. "If were so alike than why do I have to have 10 PM curfew, can't watch rated R movies, I'm not allowed to drive, I can't have my own cell phone, and you'll be damned if I go on a date?"

"Because you killed somebody!" Kisame said loudly. "Do you even remember how you were when I got you? You tried to kill me that night! The only reason you've calmed down is you have structure from me, Jugo and Sasuke!"

"But you don't have to be a Nazi about it!" Suigetsu yelled. "Has it occurred to you that I've had a couple of years to mature? I haven't pulled a knife on anyone in three years, and the last time I did was because someone was trying to beat me up. I just want to be a teenager."

"So, we have a topic, I think we can make an agreement." Kisame said sitting back and relaxing a bit. "You can play rated M games and watch R movies and I'll give you a cell phone. You can't drive though, dating has to be chaperoned and the curfew goes back to midnight."

"How about… Actually, yea, I can live with that. Sasuke can be my chauffer!" Suigetsu said happily and stuck his hand out to agree with it. He waited for a second and glared at Kisame. "They're your terms don't you still agree?"

"I just didn't expect you too." Kisame said and shook his hand. He watched as Suigetsu got up, gave him the peace sign and ran upstairs. Kisame shook his head, "Teenagers, I need an instruction manual."

--------(blAck bIrd)---------

Suigetsu came running up the stairs interrupting Deidara and Sasori talking about how weird it was the kitchen only had a microwave. Happily Suigetsu grabbed Karin's hand and began to drag her away. "What are you doing, you idiot!?"

"I need to talk to you, so let's go play with Little Karin, alright?" Suigetsu said dragging her away with him upstairs. Sasori smiled and began walking towards the basement stairs. "That's so cute, he likes her."

"Yea, teenagers with their stupid infatuations for love. I'm never going to fall for that." Deidara said happily. As he followed. "I'm just going to be me, alone and happy with whatever I do."

"And turn into that." Sasori said quietly pointing to Kisame who was cutting at a piece of paper with a knife. He lifted it up and pulled the pieces apart showing a shark eating a fish. "That's you in five years."

"I need a girlfriend…" Deidara said quickly. He thought for a second and began to walk away. "I'm going to see if Itachi still has the number of that super model, I want to go out with her and not turn into a social disaster like Kisame."

"You know," Kisame said as Sasori took a seat on a neighboring couch. "Because of that twerp, our livelihoods just went down the drain. All are jobs are probably going to be gone when Madara spills his guts. All your tenure, my shark cartilage, I'll lose Suigetsu."

"Had to be done. Would you rather Madara continue his work, digging us all deeper graves. We at least told the world what was happening." Sasori said digging out his ringing phone. "Let's see if they kill the messenger. Hello? Hey Temari, I'm fine. Yea, why don't we meet for dinner, I'll call you later. Yep, bye."

"Is that your niece?" 'Great niece' Sasori mouthed feeling old, it showed in his face and in his movements. Kisame laughed at him to which he rolled his eyes dramatically. "Don't take offense, but you're a dinosaur. How old is she?"

"18, she's a freshman up at the college studying design. She's the one who decorated my office." Sasori said nodding. "Now with it destroyed, if we do get hired back, she'll be bugging me to do it again. It means time away from my office."

--------(blAck bIrd)---------

Deidara walked down the hall where he heard a sound on the old boards like someone was shifting weight. He stopped at the door when he heard a loud sort of hacking. The coughing persisted for another second before halting in some heavy breathing. "_Comment te sens tu, mon frere_?"

"_Oui_, _je suis bien.__J'ai juste besoin d'eau__._ So, how's the war wound? Hurt like Hell or has you impeccable ability to heal start?" Sasuke's voice asked and the weight shifted. "You know, I kind of went to Hell when I saw you like that. You need to be more careful and learn an important rule Madara obviously has."

"What's that?" Itachi asked in a deep and strained voice. Deidara realized he was listening in on a conversation he shouldn't be. He gulped and wanted to walk away, but realized he couldn't move from the spot by the wall without making noise. "Shoot than try to make peace?"

"Give no quarter. I bet if it hadn't been for me there, you would have been dead and he would have just taken the marrow. At least with you laid up, he can't get to you. C_'est une benediction._" Sasuke said and the room creaked until Sasuke had placed his weight in a chair. "Would you mind explaining what exactly happened that made your bone marrow so desirable, or should I start guessing with Orochimaru? ...That's what I thought."

"So Madara is after my bone marrow than. Did he try to make a deal with you too?" Itachi asked. "He tried to make one with me, he even offered to sign you over to me and give me a pay off if I did it."

"That's a pretty good deal…" Sasuke scratched his face. He took a moment to think on the subject and looked to his brother with a dead gaze. "What'd you tell him to get 'no' through his head?"

"'Fuck off' than I shot him." Itachi laughed uneasily. "I sometimes wonder if this is going to work. I mean, how many times will we just skate by before something truly bad happens? I don't believe in karma, but we've been hitting that 1% chance every single time. I'm just worried about what will happen… I mean, technically, the moment he hit jail, you should have gone into foster."

"Sixteen's legal for a runaway. Why shove me in the system when they don't have to unless I ask for it. It's just wasting their money." Sasuke shifted and Deidara heard a loud noise. "You didn't crumple any of them did you?"

"Only the one of my licking the ketchup off the plate. I'm kidding. They're all fine. You've add quite a lot in the past few weeks. Really Sasuke, did you need to draw this one? The one of me sleeping?"

"You don't like Mister Teddy in the picture with you? I figured since you've had that bear since you were twelve, you wouldn't mind me drawing it. If he has an objection I'll go ask him…" Sasuke said playfully and a paper-ish sound was heard. "Grumpy…"

"I'm just saying, what if they do take you away Sasuke, and they wouldn't take away only you, I'd go to jail, so would Kisame. You and the rest have a chance at jail now, you're all 16. It's possible Jugo could go back to prison… What if the 99% catches up to us?"

"You worry too much; I'll never be taken alive. Well, they won't be alive…" Sasuke muttered and stood up. "Listen, I know it's worrying you, but I don't want you to worry alright. I'm old enough, and I can pull of all my stuff as trying to attract attention to Madara. You never actually did anything bad, if at all, you did good, _mon __frère__._ Now, why don't you just pass out on the bench and do that crazy heal-y thing. I'm going to go see Naruto. Alright?"

There was a space of warm silence Deidara could only feel as undying love between family. He heard footsteps so he ditched into the next room and stood there quietly against the wall. Out of the corner of his eye he could see as Sasuke disappeared and went upstairs. Deidara took two steps out into the hall and looked behind him.

"I could smell you, your cologne, it's Stetson, right?" Itachi said leaning up against the wall, one of his legs up off the ground. Deidara gulped and scratched his head nervously. "You're acting nervous… I trust you'll keep your mouth shut, am I correct?"

"Yea, I didn't hear about Mister Teddy, sorry…" Deidara said and quickly retreated to the basement in case he needed Sasori's protection. Itachi lowered his leg and easily put weight on it. Itachi just shook his head and walked back in the room shutting the door. He sat down in the chair and lifted his palm to the wound and watched as it began to close slowly.

--------(blAck bIrd)---------

"So, why'd you drag me all the way up here?" Karin said picking a fight as she opening her door. She took two steps in and turned around stopping him from coming in. "No, you don't get to come in. You only get in here for meetings and if Little Karin won't let me touch her. Mind you I still owe you something unspeakable."

"It's a room! It's not like I'm going to destroy it unless you prefer that I would." Suigetsu offered calmly. He smiled showing his teeth and Karin tried to shut the door. Suigetsu caught it with his foot and swore. "Damn it women, that hurt."

"Well than… GET YOUR FOOT OUT OF MY SPACE!" Karin shouted and the door swung open. Suigetsu stepped in and shut the door. He continued to smile boldly as he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. "What the Hell?"

"Well, I've decided something…" Suigetsu said than got cut off. Karin mad a deep growling noise which meant 'back off.' Suigetsu did and just hung back for a second waiting for the girl to control herself.

Karin gritted her teeth for a few seconds and calmed down. She took a deep breath in and puffed it out thinking off all the come backs she could use, but she ended up fueling the fire. "Is it to get your ass out of my space?"

"Why are you always obsessing over my ass?" Suigetsu asked playfully. "I know, it's nice but really. At least you're talking about it in private. You know you were pretty kinky in the car, especially considering that Sasuke was there. How many time did you smack it? Twice?"

"One of these days Lobster…" Karin said pointing a finger at him. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards him. She was startled for a second; he let go of her wrist and quickly clamped both arms tightly around her. "Suigetsu…?"

"I figured you were too stubborn to ask normally…" He said quietly. He lowered his head onto her shoulder, whispered something in her ear and waited for her to do something. Sadly she pushed him off her. As he hit the wall he looked broken.

"Grabbing people is rude you asshole!" Karin yelled pointing her finger back at Suigetsu. She took a minute to catch her breath and sighed. Taking two rapid steps she caught him angrily by the lips. Suigetsu wrapped her back up in his arms, one hand trailing. Karin broke off him shoving his hand away. "Shirt off now!"

"Yes mam." I took him a second to realize what had just happened and what he was about to do. Finally registering in his brain Suigetsu took off his shirt with the stupidest smile of his face while Karin back up towards the bed.

--------(blAck bIrd)---------

Sasuke knocked on Naruto's room with a small, warm smile on his face. After a few shuffling noises the blond opened the door to smile up at Sasuke. Naruto stepped out of the way so he could come in and than closed the door behind him. Sasuke looked over at the TV, Naruto had Soul Calibur going again. Off his laptop was music, Fall Out Boy blaring about some ex-girlfriend. "So, what's up?"

"Not much." Naruto said pausing and saving the game. He than turned the music on the TV down and waited for Sasuke to sit down next to him. "So, how's Itachi doing? Kisame said he woke up."

"Yea, he's up, not that happy though. He's afraid social services would take a 16 year old away." Sasuke said as if it didn't make any sense at all. He shrugged and relaxed back. "Can I ask you something, what happened to your parents?"

"They died two days after I was born, that's all I know. I don't even know they're names, if I have any family, just that I had parents. You at least got to know them." Naruto said and slipped his hand in Sasuke's. "Thinking about them?"

"Yea, well, I killed my parents' killer… when I was ten… It's kind of scary to know that I did that and that they did that. If we had stayed home like we had planned to do, we would have been dead too… We went on my mother's birthday, she told me to go and win her a trophy; I got bronze."

"It was a gift than. Parents, from what I've heard, they always do that. It's like they have some weird sixth sense about things." Naruto said and looked to Sasuke. Sasuke starred off into the middle of the floor. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Yea… I'm just being emo." Sasuke muttered dismally. Sasuke heard Naruto shift and he moved to wrap his arms around him. "You're going to catch the depressing… I got it from Itachi, I swear it's contagious."

"Luckily I'm like a freakish ray of happiness and sunshine. Now one can escape the happy, no one!" Naruto said and Sasuke smiled and laughed lightly. "And I have just proven my point. Look, I have made you happy."

"I should sick you on Itachi… No, on second thought…" Sasuke said and quickly had a vice grip around Naruto's stomach. "Mine."

"Hey Sasuke…" Naruto said petting the brunette's head. Sasuke looked up at him with a calm gazing emotion. Naruto smiled and pointed across the room, "Look, I remembered to shut the door finally."

Sasuke broke down laughing. He let go of Naruto to fall over laughing on the bed with a face palm. "Wow… that is seriously the weirdest thing to say when you're trying to ask."

"Why's it weird?" Naruto asked scratching his head. He thought Sasuke was laughing at him, which was more or less true. However, Sasuke didn't see it that way, he thought it was cute. He sat up and wrapped an arm around him.

"Because it makes complete sense." Sasuke blushed lightly and than saw Naruto moving. The pressed their lips together tenderly. Pulling apart they both smiled. "Naruto… thanks for the quick, although strange rescue." Naruto just smiled bigger.

--------(blAck bIrd)---------

"I need a girlfriend so badly! What's worse is all the 16 year olds are getting laid right now I'm stuck playing poker with you two!" Deidara said slamming his head on the table. Sasori ignored his comment being around Deidara twenty four-seven.

As Itachi walked down hearing Deidara's mumblings he wasn't surprised to see Kisame stand up about to find Suigetsu. Itachi however walked over and force sat him on the ground with a glare. "But Itachi… He's off…"

"He's with Karin, it'll be fine. Jugo already Okayed it. You should really listen to our conversations more carefully." Itachi sat down just fine and tapped the table for cards. Sasori dealt him in and the game continued with Kisame upset the entire time.


	41. Valentine's Day

**Huge thanks to KoTenshi who translated the French in this chapter for me!**

**Presenting chapter 41: Valentine's Day! (I worked my calendar right for this one).**

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A cell. A filthy cell. A cell with a toilet in a bad position with a pair of rusting bunk beds in front of it. A cell with a stupid crack addict that wouldn't shut up. A cell with iron bars and a patrol every ten minutes. A cell where he was bored. Madara looked straight ahead buried in his thoughts, one leg crossed over the other, arms folded, and his face sour with the fact that he had been betrayed by half of Quantity.

To make matters worse, he would stay in prison until his trial. A judge, his former friend, made a special exception and already ignored his attorney's request for bail; he said that was right out. His eye twitched in frustration as the addict leaned half his body over the bed and began talking so fast, it made Madara's head hurt. "So what are you in for? How old are you? Do you want to be friends? The guard's my friend; he gives me sticks to chew on sometimes. Want one?"

The addict held out a twig and smiled. Madara smacked the twig out of his hand and went back to being grumpy. He snorted loudly and glared at the guard as he walked by. The addict pulled out another twig and stuck it in his mouth chewing, still hanging upside down over the bed. "I get nightmares, do you get nightmares? I had a nightmare where I was Jigglypuff once and my microphone wasn't working so I had to improvise and sing in to a megaphone. Meeeegaaaaaphoooone. It's a fun word, don't you think so?"

"You are really something aren't you kid?" Madara asked as the addict retreated to his bunk and began singing hit songs from the 1990s. 'I'm going to be stuck in THIS cell with THAT moron for the rest of my life… Goddamn it.' "Hey kid, what's that weird thing in the toilet, it's all shiny."

"Shiny? What do you mean there's a shiny thing in the toilet?" He said leaning over the back side of the bed to inspect the bowl. He cocked his head and looked hard trying to see it. The period in which he was dangling was enough for Madara to act. He grabbed the collar of the orange jumpsuit and pulled it straight down. He fell onto the side of the bowl cracking his head open.

"Oh, what do you know? There was no shiny thing." Madara said in a pity voice until he smirked evilly. He sighed gained a worried complex and hollered as load as he could for the guards. They came quickly and opened the door, one blocking the exit as another entered. "He kept saying something about a shiny in the toilet and fell trying to reach it."

"Step back!" The guard said as the open at the opening ordered a gurney. They carefully lifted him on to the bed and wheeled him out, a medically trained guard checking him over. Madara watched until they left closing the cell behind them. A guard stayed put until another showed with a bucket and a rag. "Here's to clean the toilet up."

"Thank you." Madara said dismally. He kept the act up until the guards disappeared leaving him alone, to which he smiled and hummed happily to himself as he cleaned the blood off. 'Maybe this jail thing won't be so bad after all, as long as I accidentally don't kill anyone.'

Afterwards Madara put himself down for a nap. He lay there in peace and quite of his head, which he quite enjoyed until there was a tapping at the cell. A guard showed up rapping his baton on the bars for attention. "Madara Uchiha, you have a visitor waiting downstairs."

Madara sat up and put his feet on the floor following the guard out and down the stairs. A lot of the prisoners sneer calling him an old man as he passed. Reaching the visiting area he was shown a table across from an uptight blond in a green suit. "So, you came to pick fun at me Tsunade? How like you to keep up these childish games even when I really can't get back at you."

"I know it is. Now, the college has sent me with some very important news to you." She said and pulled out a stack of paper. "This is the bill, four million in damages just to the building, what I'm wondering, is it debit or credit? Either way that's a pretty big hole."

"Book sales, my dear, book sales. My agent called me at the police station. My book sales have soared; I've made two point five million in the forty minutes from my name being released to an early incarceration. You know, I think that has to be a record of some sort, you just don't see sales like that anymore." Madara said and leaned forward smiling. "So, have you started vying for my job yet, or maybe you put up one of your stooges for it?"

"Just shut up and sign for the bill." Tsunade said upset. She shoved the bottom paper foreword and handed him a black ink pen. They glared at each other for a second before Madara carefully took the ballpoint from her hadn and signed his name on the page followed by where they could take the money from. "Thank you. Do you want a copy so you can read what you've destroyed?"

"No, but can I have you deliver a message to Itachi for me?" He asked and than sighed, "Please." Tsunade nodded and pulled out a small pad of paper ripping off a sheet. He took it and quickly began scribbling something. He folded it in half and thanked her. Standing the guards lead him away. Tsunade took the work and the note and stood up taking a step. She stopped and flipped the note open. _With God as my witness you will pay and he will be mine._

She crushed the note in her hand and turned to face him, but Madara was gone. She left quickly leaving the prison, with Madara watching from behind another, bulkier prisoner. He stepped out smiled and thank the man graciously handing him a pack of cigarettes he had lifted off his former cell mate. Gingerly walking over to the guard he asked politely, "I'm allowed to go back to my cell now, correct?"

"Um... yea." The guard said confused since all the other prisoners were enjoying time out of their cells. Madara saluted him happily and walked with pep in his step up to his cell where he crashed on the bottom bunk. Happily Madara relaxed back, arms behind his head where he remain for a few minutes. He felt a hand on his shoulder and saw a very well built young man. "Can I help you?"

"Yea, you tossed Stick at the toilet, right?" Madara considered this for a second and nodded. The guy smiled and nodded standing up. Suddenly he turned and hit Madara square in the face with his knuckles. He grabbed the old man by the neck and dragged him to the toilet turning his head around. "Let's see how you like it!"

Again and again the man smashed Madara's face into the side of the toilet and than released him. Turning around he was grabbed by guards and dragged away while Madara was lifted from the ground. The guard got a glance at him and had to turn away from the carnage. "Dear Jesus… I think I'm going to be sick."

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

Sasuke fell to the side of Naruto, breath stifled and heated from the activity. His chest rose up and down heavily, every inhale remembering the feeling of them as one. Sasuke turned to Naruto who had his normally dopey smile on, this time pointed at him. "What?"

"I don't know…" He shrugged against the bed. Sasuke attempted to sit up forgetting about what happened in the lab. He pushed his arm against the bed and cringed in an instant pain. He lay back down and grabbed it rubbing the muscle hoping it would go away faster if he did. "What's wrong?"

"It's just my arm, that wack-job who invaded the labs must have ripped it a bit. It'll take a few days but it'll heal up." Sasuke said and was forced to just roll over. He laid his head on Naruto's shoulder and looked up at him with two dark blue eyes observing his partner's face. "That guy… he made me an offer."

Naruto stayed quiet for a second. The silence drove Sasuke crazy, he bit his lip and prayed that Naruto would automatically start bombing the idea. Instead the normal happy boy stuck to what he knew and replied in a funny means. "An offer? What go crazy like Madara and he'll give you your own cat?"

Sasuke laughed and curled his hand up on Naruto's chest. "No, he said there was something else…something I didn't know about my parents' murder. Something Itachi wasn't telling me. All he wanted from me was to tell him how Itachi was and join him for tea."

"I don't like it. Didn't both Itachi and Madara say to stay away from him because he was after revenge against Itachi or something like that?" Naruto raised his head to actually looked Sasuke in the eyes. "Didn't everyone else tell you to stay away from him too?"

"Well, yea... but…" Sasuke said leaning up on him meeting the gaze of the tender blue eyes. "It's something they've not been telling me, and I think it might explain why my life's been this crazy rollercoaster for the past five years."

"Doesn't that say something to you when the bad guy is even saying that he's evil?" Naruto asked somewhat as if 'what about this is bad don't you get?' He tried to smile to make Sasuke feel more at ease about the situation. "I think you should avoid him, it could be dangerous, or worse."

"Worse? I'm attacked, beaten, jumped…" Sasuke said naming them off on his finger tips. He stopped and sighed throwing his head back down on Naruto's chest to think more thoroughly. "What could be worse than getting your head blown off?"

"Isn't he like Madara and does all the genetic experiments, you could walk right into a trap. He could make you grow bat ears, have two heads or turn you into a girl." Sasuke smiled and popped his head up in from on Naruto's with a wicked look to his eyes. "What?"

"_Est ce que tu réalises ce que tu di, mon petit renard? _I like the fact you don't want me to be a girl. It means you enjoyed me, that you like me in…" Sasuke was edging dangerously close to Naruto when there was a knock at the door. Sasuke fell next to him on the bed swearing into the mattress.

"Hello?" Naruto called after grabbing a blanket to cover them up. After a second Jugo walked in, a nervous twitched in his hand. He stepped in, saw the situation and decided to close the door. "Hey Jugo, what's up?"

"Hey, um, can I talk to you guys for a second? I need advice." He said sitting down on the floor. Sasuke sat up and looked at him, waiting for Jugo to look up out of his thoughts.

"Advice, on what Jugo?" Sasuke said snapping Jugo out of whatever daydream he was having. Jugo looked up, smiled like he didn't mean it and turned back away. "You didn't kill someone again did you?"

"Well… I kind of… Tayuya likes me and I kind of like her but I can't say that to her face because it makes me nervous and when I'm nervous I can't really do anything without messing it up." Jugo admitted quickly so he could get everything out at once. Sasuke smiled and looked over at Naruto remembering the hard time he had with him.

"We can tell." Sasuke joked. Naruto turned to him and tried to be honest. "Shouldn't you be asking this to Karin? She's a girl. We're guys, we may be gay, but we're still guys. She'd know what to say to another girl."

"I thought of that first and tried to go upstairs but there were things going on up there I didn't want to interrupt." Jugo said and the two of them looked back at him with blank expressions. He stared at them, expecting them to know already. "Karin and Suigetsu finally hooked up and they're in her room right now fucking, I figured I'd let them have their first time in peace."

Sasuke's jaw nearly dropped. He was anticipating them going out, but not suddenly like they had done. Naruto laughed and clapped his hands together. "Yea, didn't see that coming, I've only been pointing it out for the past two or three days." Sasuke shoved him over playfully to which he got up and shoved Sasuke back.

"Try a card or a note, something you can hand to her, but you don't actually have to say anything." Naruto said and decided to pick fun at Sasuke. "And if all else fails you can bring her to Black Bird, make her feel comfortable and than force yourself on her after getting tattooed at three A.M."

"Shut up…" Sasuke said pushing him down on the bed and holding him down. He mouthed something Jugo presumed was partially dirty. Whatever it was made Naruto smile. The Uchiha than turned back to him. "I'd go with a note, it's Tayuya, and a pretty card won't go over well. Actually, I avoided it and just kissed him until he bugged me about the formalities. Why not just go ask her out to dinner or something?"

"It's probably more polite than a tattooing." Naruto muttered. Sasuke glared for a second before quickly wrapping a arm around Naruto's neck head locking him. Naruto wriggled and squirmed trying to get out but couldn't. "It's true, the tattoo was very abrupt, and painful. Could you…?"

"Fine, but all tattoos are painful." Sasuke said letting him go. He nearly silently muttered about Naruto being through worse pain and the gasping noises he made that were so erotic. Naruto blushed a deep, dark red with an ashamed little smiled creeping onto his face.

"Right, thanks." Jugo said and got up seeing the looks they were giving each other. He abandoned the room as fast as he could shutting the door tightly. Outside Itachi was looking at him with a cocked eyebrow. "I really, really wouldn't go in there right now. It may traumatize you."

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

Jugo paced back and forth a few times in front of a wooden white painted door with a small pastel pink daisy in his hand. He had gotten it out of someone's lawn on the way over, figuring they wouldn't care that much. He took a deep breath, knocked quickly and waited in silent air. He stopped to turn away and than heard something like a bolt being undone. Turning back around he shoved the flower forward.

"I ALREADY PAID THI…. Jugo, what are you doing here? Is that a flower?" Tayuya asked taking it from his hand to see the stem completely misshapen and several of the petals fallen off. She observed it for a minute and than turned to him, towering over her. She looked down and smiled somewhat nervous about the situation. "Flowers fall apart easily… heh eh…heh… What are you doing just showing up at my door?!"

"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to go grab some food with me. I don't have a lot of money on me, so it's got to be McDonalds but… Um." Tayuya stepped out and shut the door behind her. She carefully put the flower in her hair and smiled. "Than that's okay?"

Tayuya nodded and smiled and a great sigh of relief coursed through Jugo he smiled and offered his hand to her. She took it and didn't bother to say that his hands were a little bit more than twice the size of hers. They walked out of the apartment complex and onto the side walk. "So, um… how's that guy who was shot?"

"Oh, Itachi? He's fine, up and walking around already." Jugo muttered. His immediate thoughts were to get off the subject or what happened earlier. He than looked down at her leg and glared at the tattoo. "So, do you like the way it turned out. The rose I mean?"

"Oh, yea. It's really cute; of course, I did half of it… Than you did the other…" They went silent as they passed by the McDonald's marquee board going inside the restaurant. The board flashed a deal on strawberry shakes than switched over to a very happy pink message with hearts falling down around it: _Happy Valentine's!_


	42. Still we should run like it is Godzilla!

Sasuke's iPhone went off to give them an hour to get ready for school He hit it shutting the alarm off and than turned to Naruto and shook him awake. Naruto looked at him, smiled and turned over muttering about skipping school. "Nope, come on. It's going to be fun today."

"Bastard…" Naruto said too tired to get up yet. He yawned and sat up as Sasuke got out of bed and got dressed. Naruto sat up and grabbed his clothes off the floor. "You just want to go and piss people off."

"I do, to be completely honest." Sasuke laughed grabbing his phone and going through it. He shut it off and shoved it away in his back pocket. He waited until Naruto was fully dressed to open the door. They locked hands like it was natural and proceeded to go down the stairs passing Kisame who was going up. Kisame knocked on Suigetsu door and opened it not getting a response.

He grunted and quickly walked upstairs and knocked on Karin's door. After a second the door opened to Suigetsu rubbing his eyes. He looked at Kisame and stepped out in his boxers. "If you're going to go all psycho parent on me I'd like to remind you that you said I could, so it's all your fault."

"Yes, date, not go off and do someone. They're two different things." Kisame said upset at his ward. He crossed his arms and waited for a response. Suigetsu just shrugged nothing thinking anything of it.

"Blame her, it was her idea." He said crossing his arms as well, he waited for a second before Kisame looked like he was going to snap and added this. "Are you sure you're not just pissed off because you haven't gotten laid in forever?"

"Just get ready for school… And she better not turn up pregnant, do you understand?" Kisame said quietly and turned around walking away. Suigetsu shook his head and opened the door going back inside her room. Karin was sleeping quietly half exposed under a blanket. Suigetsu patted her back softly.

"Um?" She muttered and turned getting her glasses. She looked at him and than looked at the clock. She sighed and wrapped the blanket around her sitting up. "Why is my clock on the floor…?"

"I think we knocked it off the table." Suigetsu smiled making Karin roll her eyes.

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

Kisame paced in the basement, making Jugo and Itachi annoyed as they tried to tag team a crossword puzzle. After putting down three more words Kisame sighed and plopped down on the couch asking for attention. He didn't receive it. "Guys, you don't see a problem with it at all do you?"

"Like Sasuke will let me advise him on that." "Karin can take care of herself, and let's me know constantly." "Like I even want to know what he does." "Karin did a stint as a hooker, she knows what can happen." They said barely looking up before going back to their purist of 'In the Hobbit, what does Bilbo Baggins call the spiders?' After a few minutes they sighed and looked at each other. "I've never read it." "Me either."

"Whoever got the uber amount of doughnuts, thanks." Sasuke said charging down the stairs. He jumped down and landed happily on the basement floor with Naruto following right behind. Jugo waved a hand in recognition not looking up from the puzzle. "What are you guys staring at?"

Jugo held out the crossword and pointed to it. After a second both Sasuke and Naruto shrugged, however Sasuke dug out his phone and got on the web. After some furious typing and searching he held out the answer. "What the Hell is an Attercop?"

"The answer… It fits perfectly." Itachi said grabbed the pen to write it in. Jugo looked at it and agreed. Sasuke poked Itachi in the middle of the forehead and smiled like he wanted to play. "What's up?"

"How's your leg?" He asked sitting down next to his brother. Itachi shrugged and lifted up his pant leg to show a scar. Sasuke looked at it, than poked it. "It's completely healed, oh my god, you've turned into Wolverine."

"Shut up." Itachi said shoving him away with a smirk. He gave the crossword book completely over to Jugo and stood up nodding for Sasuke to come along. Sasuke followed him out the steel door and it closed. Naruto took his seat at the edge of the couch and set his bag down by the end of it.

Naruto sat quietly for a minute worrying about school and than saw Kisame pacing about the room. He thought that was awkward but found out why as soon as Suigetsu came down stairs and they shunned each other. Kisame headed upstairs trying to upset him; however Suigetsu smirked turning to Naruto. "Ah, Kisame, thinks parent by 50's standards is okay. It's not, by the way."

"Be nice." Jugo warned sticking a finger in the kappa's face without even looking. "He's just worried for your safety, and it doesn't help that when he tells you that you can finally date the first thing you do is go get laid."

"Blame her; she's the one who brought that on. I just did what I was told." Suigetsu argued. He muttered and than sighed, "Everyone always thinks it's the guy's idea, it's not, that was all her but no everyone rags on me about it."

"I'll rag on her when she gets down here." Jugo said and continued working on the puzzle. After a few minutes of slightly agitated quiet Karin made her was groggily downstairs with a doughnut in her mouth she was slowly gnawing on. She sat down facing Naruto on Suigetsu lap and cuddled there until Jugo poked her on the back of her head. "Did you rape Suigetsu last night?"

Suigetsu face went white and he started freaking out. Karin pulled the doughnut from her mouth and didn't miss a beat. "Yea I did, he's my bitch now. Nearly made him scream and cry. Why?"

"Kisame doesn't like the idea of Suigetsu having sex yet, don't do it while he's around, okay?" Karin shrugged and muttered 'sure' laying her head back down on Suigetsu's shoulder. Naruto laughed at Suigetsu, "Ha, you were raped by a girl."

Suigetsu quickly punched him in the lower jaw only halfway meaning it.

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

The Uchiha brothers arranged themselves on the stairs both starring down at the dirt and dust ridden floor trying think of what the content of the conversation should be. Sasuke scratched his head and sighed deeply. "I guess I'll have to be extra careful now. At least I know what he looks like now."

"You're to runaway, do you understand? You're not strong enough to fight him." Itachi's voice grew grim and cold. "If what you told me is true, we have no defense against him. The best we can do is run until we can find a way to escape him completely or destroy him."

"I know." Sasuke said. He sat foreword clasping his hands together nervously. He looked at Itachi and with a bit of pathetic expression whispered. "My arm… I think he did something with it, it hasn't stopped hurting since yesterday."

"Do you want to skip today?" Itachi asked putting his hand on his little brother's head. Sasuke shook no and was reeled in. "Do worry about it too much _mon frere_, I'll have Sasori look at it after school."

"Right, well, I'll get them. I wanted to head in early." Sasuke said and stood up breaking from Itachi. He headed through the metal door leaving Itachi glaring at what used to be his form. He bit his nails and sighed heavily. "I don't like this."

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

"Avoid creepy guys!" Deidara shouted as he and Kisame drove away leaving the four Black Birds outside the school, twenty whole minutes before school would start. Karin yawned and rubbed her eyes. "Why do we have to be here so early?"

"I want to find people to brag to." Sasuke said smiling in a showy manner. Everyone just stared at him until he stopped. "I just became a millionaire… I want to brag to everyone that hates me for being me."

"That's understandable. Come on Karin, let's go get some food in the cafeteria." Suigetsu said pulling her by the hand into the school still half asleep. They disappeared and Sasuke turned to Naruto. "You really want to come off as an asshole?"

"But I'm a rich asshole… as soon as Madara's assets are turned over to me. I understand they're trying to get him into trial soon which means a quicker check for me." Sasuke made a pouty look and Naruto grabbed his hand. "Cool, let's go show up everyone we hate."

"You're really enjoying this aren't you?" Naruto asked and Sasuke just nodded bursting into the school with a giant smile on his face Naruto tagging behind finding his mood entertaining.

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

"If he stays there for a while? You honestly don't think he can get out do you, that prison is intense. There's no live escape from it." Sasori talked back to the conferencing box on the table in front of him. "Both Itachi and I have been in there numerous times, Madara won't be able to get out."

"_Well, Hidan and Kakuzu already broke out of the hospital, how do you think Konan and I are talking to you? All those two have to do is encounter another Deidara and he's out scott-free basically." _Nagato said into the phone on his side of the line. "_Anyway, we have a more pressing matter. This morning we received a gift basket from Orochimaru…I think he wants back in, and if he does, we're all done for. But still…Against Orochimaru, we're all useless, even my modifications were put to shame. I'm afraid the only way we might be able to beat him is to sac someone to 9."_

"No. We'll not stoop to his levels." Itachi said quickly ending that train of thought. He sighed and looked to Sasori. "If you do talk to Orochi, see if you can find out what he's going to do to Sasuke."

"_Well, apparently he just wants a plaything like you were. He just told me that he wanted Sasuke_." Nagato muttered as in the background the door went off. He sighed and told Konan to shut the door tightly. "_Anyway, he said Sasuke had a will to kill and that he could help that. I think he's still trying to make a super genocidal maniac mini-me."_

"Wouldn't surprise me. Keep safe." Sasori said and Nagato said 'bye' and hung up. Sasori sighed and pressed the button ending his side of the call. He sat back in his chair and looked at Itachi. "So, where is he?"

"He's at school, wouldn't take my hint to stay home. I wish he would have though. Lock him in a room until he's 18." Itachi stared blankly at the machine. "Sasuke would make a good mini-me, he can't control his anger sometimes."

"I was actually referencing Kisame, but yes, him too." Sasori elaborated. "Is Kisame sick, he'd never miss something like this?"

"Kisame went to a… parent class… down at the Rec Center. Suigetsu and Karin got together and now he doesn't know what to do…" Sasori nodded saying 'ahh…' Itachi laughed. "You'd think he'd be okay with it but, he's not taking it so well. Likes to stab things; alright, swears; not okay, girlfriend; long line of swear words."

"Every parent handles things differently." Sasori muttered and watched as Deidara walked out of a room down the hall in yesterday's clothes. He muttered 'Good morning' through a yawn and walked into the kitchen. "He's old enough to be a parent and yet I have to parent _that_."

Itachi just laughed and than stopped abruptly. "Oh, Sasuke. He thinks Orochimaru did something to his arm. He's been having nonstop pain in it, I was wondering if you would go and check it out when he gets home from school."

"Oh course, just call me when he gets to that weird little colony you have going and I'll bring by my testing equipment." Sasori said and heard a large moan from the kitchen. "I'm going to regret this… What's wrong Deidara?"

"WE'RE OUT OF CHEERIOS." He whined loudly and walked into the living room leaning over the couch. He turned and looked at Itachi who looked back emotionless. "When did you get here?"

"I've been here for forty minutes. We just had the conference with Nagato." Itachi explained pointing to the device on the table. Deidara threw he head down on the couch complaining that nobody had bothered to wake him up. "We tried."

"You threatened to blow me up." Sasori explained. Deidara nodded amused and walked back into the kitchen. Sasori pointed to him and face palmed. Itachi just laughed getting up. "Luck you, getting to leave…"

"HEY SASORI, WE'RE OUT OF MILK."

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

"I'm sorry, there's not much we can do to fix your face without full surgery, and your lost eye… I can't do anything for that without optical surgery. However, you are very old so…" Madara got up off the hospital table and grabbed the ski mask from off the table.

"I know, it's alright. Thanks for stitching up some of the wounds anyhow." Madara said putting the mask on. He offered his hand to the doctor, who shook it nervously, and walked out holding his wrists up to be cuffed. They guards placed them on him and walked him slowly out of the hospital. The press swarmed, questions flying everywhere.

"Was this a revenge-based attack." "How's you're face?" "Will you be having surgery?" Madara asked the officers to stop so he could talk. "Listen, my cell mate was high and fell on the toilet; someone blamed me and smashed my face in. That's all. If you want to talk to me, arrange a meeting at the prison, please."

Madara was than shoved into the car and taken back to the prison, all the while complaining. "I hate reporters. You know when I was running as Dean, those damn college reporters were swarming me. So annoying, luckily if you give them weed they go away."

"Did you just confess to distributing illicit drugs?" The guard asked with a serious face. Madara nodded. "Well, I guess for you and those charges, it doesn't matter. They're talking the death penalty for you."

"Just let me wear a Richard Nixon mask to my injection. I always wanted to be President." Madara said playfully. Luckily his guard didn't get the joke. They exited the car and he was taken into the prison. He was happy until he was told he had a vistor arrive two minutes ago. "Damn, the press is fast."

Madara walked immediately into the waiting room to see a kid there alone and drawing a picture of Godzilla on a notepad. Madara sat down getting his attention and smiled. "What are you, a sketch artist?"

The boy looked up at him. He looked familiar to the old Uchiha. Something about the red hair and green eyes. "No, I'm the senior editor for the Greenpoint High School News, I'm…"

"Gaara, Sasori brags about you. I bet he doesn't know you're here, does he?" Gaara shook his head. "You want a story don't you? How about this one. Four years ago me and several of my people set fire to a Sorority building and captured the girls as they ran out. We kept them in a room under the Science building, fed them only water and bread. We tried to manipulate their genes into one which would be resistance to the common cold.

"Four died of shock, two developed cancer very rapidly so we let one of my associates rape and kill them. The rest were failures with different shit going wrong. We just shot them and tossed their bodies in the incinerator, it was very fun. How's that?"

"Not what I was looking for actually. I came here on behalf of myself, not my school or any press whatsoever." Gaara said sitting foreword. "Over the past couple years I've been able to piece together my uncle's life. I'm warning you not to implicate my uncle, I know you haven't so far, but as I understand it, dead men like to get even."

"If I want to get even at any given point I will. What makes you think you can stop me from getting him the exact same sentence? We did the same thing." Madara said mocking his movements.

Gaara's face didn't even twitch. "You are not the same. My uncle did his work for a job and to make sure you never got too out of control. The way I'm going to stop you from implicating him is by stopping down to your level. You tell and I'll kill Sasuke Uchiha, are we understanding each other now?"

"Yes sir." Gaara grabbed his pad of paper and ripped off the page with Godzilla on it. He set it down the on the table and walked away quietly. Madara picked up the page and looked at the beast with the words 'A small reminder' written at the top. Godzilla was crushing a cat under his foot. "Orochimaru should pick him over Sasuke."


	43. Girl Scout Cookies

**And you just thought the happiness was going to last forever didn't you...? Mwahahahahaha.... Love Aki :)

* * *

**

"Yea, lunch." Suigetsu sounded as he bit into a hot dog. The call of 'yea' lunch echo thrice which made them stop to turn to Sasuke who was once again skipping his class. He had tacked himself on the end of the group with no one noticing. "Great, I have one more person to mooch off of."

"Yep, that's why I came, Suigetsu, just so you can mooch off me." Sasuke said sticking a fry from his plate into his mouth. Suigetsu just shrugged and ignored his tray eating off of Karin's. For once she didn't mind and just switched their trays while he wasn't paying attention. "Oh, Hey Hinata."

The shy Hyuuga was noticed approaching them and sat down in front of Naruto and Sasuke. She waved and then put her hands in her lap nervously. "I was talking with the teacher, you're going to get detention for skipping Naruto."

"Really? Damn…" Naruto said hanging his head. He muttered something about it being so unfair under his breath. Sasuke patted him on the shoulder fondly, "You owe me a detention, you know that Sasuke."

"I'll have Deidara contact the offices. Let see how they hold up against a law student." Sasuke smiled happily. "So, how's Neji holding up with the paper, I heard there was a ton of submissions this morning?"

"Well… Um… Luckily the Valentine's issue is Friday so they won't have any student work like that, but, it's becoming pressing on him… He hasn't even made it to lunch yet. He got about a five inch stack this morning." She said quietly scratching the back of her head.

"I got an idea… Sasuke should write a letter to all the haters telling them to shut up." Karin said. Suigetsu laughed and smiled knowing what it would say. "'Dear Piss-Ants, Fuck you. Sincerely I'm rich bitch.' That's about it, isn't it, Sasuke?"

"Yea, pretty much. I'm more of a 'Dear stupid-ass pigs, you don't know jack shit. Maybe if you weren't so busy looking up porn online because you can't get any, you'd have a better head on you shoulders. Fuck you all.' That's more my style." Sasuke said and than saw Hinata pull out a piece of paper.

He took it and looked at it for a second. Hinata put her hands together and than sighed, "I wasn't sure if you heard about it or not, but, Neji brought it in and I took it…"

"I haven't… Thank you." Sasuke than looked at the Black Birds who were starring. "It's about Madara, some inmate smashed his face into a toilet obliterating it completely. I guess they won't put up with his antics there."

"Hi." Shikamaru said coming over joining Hinata, following behind him was Ino and Sai. Sasuke looked over them and sighed scooting over to there was room. Every filled in the little corner, the group doubling in size. "I've got some good news and some bad news."

"Okay than…" Naruto said sitting foreword to give him more attention. He braced himself for a second and decided he couldn't handle whatever the bad news was. "What's the good news?"

"Well, if anyone does anything to you guys on school grounds you can have them arrested for a hate crime. The bad news is that most of the school thinks you're a whore and only sticking with Sasuke because he has money." Shikamaru said flatly. "But another good news is that you should be receiving a phone call from Chouji issuing an apology."

"I got to him. Nothing can defeat a woman's initiative." Ino smiled happily. Karin gave her a 'Hell yes!' and they high-fived. "Anyway, all I had to do was point out that he was fat and he gave."

"Anyway, um…" Hinata said mashing her fingers together. "Kiba's trying to get to Shino and Sakura to get some sense through their heads, but they're not budging very much. According to Neji, this morning they filed to set up a club for Christians, so it looks like their trying to rally… or something…" Hinata blushed in a slight bit of confused and faded out.

They all looked at her for a second realizing she wasn't coming back for a while. Naruto smiled and got an idea into his head, "Clubs have to be open to anyone unless privately funded by an accepted organization which means they can't go private for a couple of weeks. Ino, go and cause Hell. Lots and lots of Hell."

"Oh, I am planning on it. You want to come, it'll be fun?" Ino asked Karin. They instantly agreed and all the guys just saw an alliance of scary women starting to form.

Sai shook his head. "I think we shouldn't be opposing them in this way. It will just give them ammunition. The ultimate goal should be something without transgression, not insulting the other and starting a huge fight."

"I agree, we don't need a huge homosexual fight going on into town when we still have Madara to deal with. As long as he has henchmen we still have things to worry about." Sasuke informed the black birds. "Karin, I forbid it. Annihilating an immediate threat is one thing but fanning a fire is another. Neutrality, remember."

"Understood." She said acknowledging the ruling. Ino looked at him but Sasuke ignored her. He nudged Naruto and pointed towards the door. The both got up excusing themselves and walked away into the boy's bathroom. Ino looked at Karin. "What?"

"You're going to let him do something like that?" Ino asked angrily. "You're a woman, stick up for yourself. This is a violation of your rights as a human; you can do what you want! You don't have to let him tell you if you can or can't."

"But he's right, after what's happened in the past while… You getting all burned up," She said looked back at Suigetsu. They grabbed hands and smiled. "And what happened yesterday to Itachi…"

Ino was going to ask but Shikamaru slapped a hand over her mouth. He shook his head quickly. "You don't want to know, it'll just cause you trouble."

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

"No." Naruto said out flatly and Sasuke was a little stunned. Naruto had gained some ground in where he felt he was in the relationship, and he was showing it. "That bastard is dangerous and you're just going to walk into his house and seriously expect nothing's going to happen?"

"Naruto, just listen to me. Orochimaru knows something, he knows something about why my parents had to die, there's more than a drug bust here and I want to know what it is. You've never had parents, you've never had to lose them, you don't know what it's like waking up expecting to see your mom and remember she's been buried six feet under for years…" Sasuke said nearly yelling. He put on a face of sadden honesty and sighed, "I just want to take out who really did it."

Naruto stepped forward and hugged him tightly. Sasuke hugged back and than heard Naruto whisper. "If you're not home when I get home, I will tell Itachi and we will drag your ass home."

Naruto let go of the Uchiha and walked out of the bathroom. Sasuke stood their in silence for a second before realizing he only had an hour and a half. He quickly bailed out of the bathroom and ran out the back door of the school and kept running.

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

"Oh, you looked pissed off, what happened?" Karin noted as Naruto joined back with the group. He kept standing and asked if he could talk to Shikamaru, alone. Shikamaru sighed and stood up. As they walked out Karin made another observation. "Where's Sasuke? Oy, Naruto!"

Naruto ignored the question and walked out into the hall and began freaking and spitting out information so fast his head began to hurt. Shikamaru had to stop him and take a second. All he heard was Sasuke, stupid and vengeance. "Wait, what did you say? You jammed it into one sentence there."

"Sasuke…" Shikamaru nodded. "He's going to an evil scientist because he thinks he has information about what really happened to his parents." Shikamaru nodded again. "That same evil scientist has vowed vengeance against Sasuke's brother Itachi and Madara who attempted to kill him. Shikamaru nodded again. "Am I the only one who sees a problem with this? He running into a trap, I'm sure he knows it."

"Is he already gone?" Naruto nodded this time. "Why didn't you stop him? If you're boyfriend's running to his death you nail him to the ground and knock him unconscious! You've got to get the police in on this."

"I can't call the police, they'll find out we we're there yesterday and Itachi, Kisame, Sasori and Deidara will all be hauled off to jail. Than we're completely fucked over because we're entirely venerable." Naruto muttered and began pacing. "I need some assurance, obviously if he wanted Sasuke dead he would have done it yesterday, so he wants Sasuke alive. Why does he want Sasuke?"

"Well, why is he pissed at Itachi? I'm pretty sure that's probably something big to do with it." Shikamaru said and watched as Naruto stopped. "What?"

"He's… He's going to genetically modify him to become something like the incredible hulk or something. All the scientists, they're completely crazy like that." Naruto muttered and began pacing again. Shikamaru kept trying to talk him through it, though the worst part was all of this being seen from the cafeteria by the group.

"I don't think I want to know." Suigetsu said and held Karin's head close to him as they explained a few things about the Black Birds to Ino, Sai and a now conscious Hinata. The first was that they were each other's families as nobody except Sasuke had anyone. The second was that Sasuke was the unquestioned leader, having brought and kept them all together. Third was that there was a lot of shit going down right now, far beyond what the media shows. "There are some way worse things going on than Naruto and Sasuke in bed together, which is why we try to ignore that."

"That must suck, I couldn't imagine not having a family." Ino said feeling guilty about what she has. She gazed over at Suigetsu and Karin who were cuddling and smiled. "Still you have each other, it's better than being alone."

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

Sasuke was downtown alone, the streets empty. Everyone was off at College Row eating lunch, that is, everyone but the workers of the tattoo parlor. Sasuke saw it coming up ahead and looked at it. He remembered his tattooed shoulder and held it through his sweater. Jugo had bet on his tattoo, he figured he mind as well stop by while nothing's happening and let him win.

Sasuke walked up and opened the door finding them head banging to the radio in a reckless manner. Sasuke let out a loud 'Ahem' and got the attention of the shop. "Sorry to interrupt. Is Jugo here?"

"JUGO! GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE!" Sakon yelled from his chair and than swiveled back to watch Sasuke. Sasuke just looked away for a second triggering a memory flash in Sakon's head. "Hey aren't you that kid on the news with the genocidal uncle?"

"Yea, that'd be me, I was in here yesterday, my brother had a bullet in his leg and we did impromptu surgery." Sasuke said reminding him like it was nothing. Sakon just nodded slowly and mouthed 'riiight…' Jugo came out and looked over at Sasuke. "Hey."

"Hey, are you skipping again?" Sasuke nodded and Jugo sat down in his chair. Jugo shook his head in disappointment. "You really need to stop skipping. Your brother's going to be pissed."

"He's always pissed. Anyway, first, please tell me you have some cigarettes. I need one so badly it's not funny." Sasuke said and was relieved when Jugo dug in his pockets and produced a pack and shoved a lighter inside. Sasuke took them and shoved them away. "Secondly, I remembered you said you had that bet."

"The bet! Yea, Jugo said he did a huge ass hawk, I called bullshit, five hundred dollars on the line." Ukon said loudly getting the rest of the shop around. Sasuke smiled the slipped his arm out of one sleeve and freed his shoulder from the sweater. Sasuke turned showing them Jugo's work and Ukon slammed his fists on his chair. "You're lucky you won because that's way more than five hundred worth of work."

"I paid him fifteen hundred for it." Sasuke said and slipped his sweater back on as Ukon forked over the money. Jugo smiled happily as he shoved the money away and looked at Tayuya. "Now that I have cash for it, do you want to go out for dinner?"

"Sure…SHUT UP OR I'LL RIP OUT YOUR TONGUES!" She screamed as Sakon and Ukon began laughing. She went over and grabbed both of them by the collar shaking them senseless.

Kidoumaru shook his head and told Jugo that he better be thankful he's twice her size, he has a chance to take her on par. Jugo just shook his head and sighed. He looked to the door but found that it was closing, Sasuke disappearing outside somewhere. Sasuke actually had just gone a foot to the right of Jugo's vision and was on a pay phone pulling out a white card with a phone number on it and an address. He sighed and dialed it. After a second he heard a voice, "I want to talk to Orochimaru… This is Sasuke. You'll put him on the phone or I'll go and tell Madara."

"That's not a nice threat…" Orochimaru's voice slithered on. Sasuke for a minute wanted to back off and threw the phone away to inhale cringing only to bring it back to his ear to hear him again. "So, you're interested in what I have to say?"

"Possibly… Before I come, I want to know what exactly went on between you and Itachi. And I'm not talking we never got along excuses either." Sasuke said and heard a little bit of silence.

"Itachi… was an experiment, but after a while he decided to back out by having Madara try to kill me. That's what went on in short… Now, can I expect you soon, I'll have Kabuto put tea on." He said with a slight amusement.

"Yea, I'll be there in a few minutes." Sasuke hung the phone on the hook and pulled out the cigarettes lighting one. Every step he took towards Orochimaru he wanted to call himself stupid and foolish. He just kept walking inhaling the toxin trying to keep steady.

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

"Kabuto, go put the kettle on, we're expecting company." Orochimaru said happily from his chair. He caressed the white leather with a few fingers and smiled. "You know, it's been so long since we've had company. Last people were those girl scouts last week. Say do we have any of their cookies left?"

"We only bought forty boxes… Yeah, which ones do you want?" Kabuto asked self-correcting his attitude as he headed into the kitchen. He stopped in the doorway however and waited to hear.

"The Somoas of course." He said like it was natural. He waited for a second before getting up. Orochimaru grabbed his drink and casually threw his orders towards the kitchen. "Bring them to the lab; I'm going to prep for my new little mouse."

"Yes sir." Came back at him and Orochimaru walked down the hall and turned into a pair of white doors opening to a large sterile lab. He went over to the table and looked at it for a second before lowering it nearly to the floor. "Why's it down there?"

"I have a feeling he's not going to let me bring him in here willingly. Make sure the gas is ready with a mask." Orochimaru said and began getting out various tools. "Oh, I'm so excited for fresh blood. I told you we should have taken those girl scouts…"

"But than they won't come back and give us more cookies, Orochimaru." Kabuto said simply. Orochimaru smiled agreeing. "How long is this procedure going to take, we wouldn't want any uninvited guests showing up."

"Not more than a few minutes, anyway, I'm not going to make this easy for them. I want to watch Itachi's face as he suffer." Orochimaru voice darkened. He carefully glared at the syringe in his hand and smiled at the thoughts that were coming to him. "I want him to watch what's most important to him crash and burn as did my career and my work."


	44. I Won

Nervous pacing wasn't helping any, though he felt that it was. Sasuke dropped the cigarette from his mouth and smashed it on the sidewalk looking up at the strange white-purple house before him. 'Oh great, he and Madara share decorating tastes.' He licked his lips and gained the courage to walk up on the front porch and knock on an old screen door. He stood there silent for a minute listening to the annoying amount of wind chimes hung about. Every time one sounded in the gentle breeze he could feel his stomach sink a bit.

The door opened and Kabuto looked out with a box of cookies in his hands. They stared at each other for a second before the lab assistant unlocked the screen door and opened it a bit for him. "You're nearly perfectly on time. It's odd for a boy your age."

"It's odd for a man your age to be comparing boys of my age to one another… You're too young for that." Sasuke said and pushed by him into the house. He walked in and saw the dark wood floors, the dark wood paneling and the chandlers. "Does he and Madara seriously have the same interior designer?"

"I don't like it either, too dreary, but it's his house." Kabuto shrugged and closed the door. He began walking past him and stopped at a door way waving for him to follow, "Come on, he's down in the living room."

Kabuto led Sasuke quietly down an ornate hallway to a very large wooden door at which he knocked first. There was a muffled sound and Kabuto opened the door and walked in holding out the cookies first. Sasuke followed in seeing Orochimaru sitting in a large chair by a dark stone fireplace eagerly grabbing the box. "You take forever I swear, Kabuto… Ah, Sasuke, come sit down."

Sasuke walked over silently to the chair across from the snake-like man's and sat down. He sat back with his hand on the arm rests glaring silently at him, waiting. He hoped his coldness would work over Orochimaru as it had Zetsu, but something here seemed different. "You keep your posture like Madara's… Stiff as a board. Kabuto, why don't you go away for a while, we have things to talk to about in private."

"Sure." Kabuto said and exited out the door from whence they came. He closed the doors and Orochimaru sat foreword pressing his long white fingers together. "Now, my young Uchiha… I have a proposition for you. I would like to give you a gift of…"

"My parents' murder." Sasuke interrupted quickly. Orochimaru's mouth shut as Sasuke's gaze angered. "You will tell me what I don't know about it, as we agreed previously. That's the terms I came on and those are the terms we will follow."

"Impatient aren't we." Orochimaru shifted in his chair crossing one leg over the other and resting his face on one hand. "So… you want the truth? You're father was nosy. He was told to drop it and didn't. The operation was owned by Madara… the building, the drugs, the ring, and more importantly the dirty cops all belonged to Madara. Sad isn't it? You've been living with your parent's murderer.

"It's not a bad trade off for you I'd say. You've been recently given a new Corevette, considering a hit is worth oh… ten thousand. I'd say you've been paid over and over again. He spoils you so." Orochimaru said and opened the box of girl scout cookies. "You want some, they're Samoas."

Sasuke stared silently for a second before snapping out of his daze. "No, no thank you." He said his attitude changing. His eyes darted to the flames, hands tightening to the arm rests. He put his eyes back on the man. "So… You've followed through. What is it you want me for?"

"I want to make you stronger. Not bulky misshapen body builder, but enhance your own muscles so they work forty times as good. Aid your eyes so you can have 100/20 vision. No more zits." Orochimaru said than looked at him. "Looks like you got that under control though. You can be just like Itachi."

"I'm sorry to say that that really doesn't interest me… at all." Sasuke said and than looked at him. "If I wanted to be genetically enhanced, I'm surrounded by evil scientists who would love to do it. Their only purpose to me though was that they answered to my fingers snapping just like Madara's."

"They used to do that for me as well." Orochimaru said and pulled out another cookie and took a second to eat it. There was a knock at the door and it soon opened to Kabuto carrying in the most girlish tea set Sasuke had ever seen. "Oh, thank you Kabuto, now you have other duties to attend to."

"Right." Kabuto muttered somewhat annoyed. Yet again he left this time slamming the doors afterwards. Sasuke shook his head. "Help… They always seem to think they're entitled to be involved in the conversation."

"I know, right." Orochimaru said and watched as Sasuke took his tea and sniffed it before he began drinking it. With his face soured Orochimaru took his cup. "You think I would poison you?"

"Well, when both Itachi and Madara say to avoid you… I have to question you. It's nothing personal." Sasuke said coldly and took another sip silently. He set his cup down and waited for Orochimaru to do something. "Well, since we have time why don't you explain why I should trust you over Madara?"

"Because I would like you to be my legacy." Orochimaru said with a warm smile on his face and finally took a drink of his tea letting it warm his mouth. He set it down and sighed peacefully. "You see Sasuke, Madara would like you to be his legacy. Live his life after he's gone, have a million cats and a bad taste in wine. I want you to become an exalted like me, like Nagato, like Itachi… like Nine."

Sasuke just blinked and remained silent. The quiet remained until Orochimaru continued a second later. "Our bodies have basically become testaments to man's ingenuity. We are more efficient, we don't get sick, and our recovery time is accelerated. I want to give you this gift free, no add-ons. I just want to know my work will be out there."

"And your work will pass on through genetics to the next generation I take it?" Sasuke asked quickly. Orochimaru nodded once. "I take it however the enhancements won't thin as they travel down the bloodlines, they'll stay strong and slowly encompass all of humanity in a matter of centuries preventing diseases and creating a superior race.

"I also however assume that some of the population will reject the genetics when directly applied and will die out so you pick out a select few and have them breed the changes into the world and that since the female sex cells are all developed at puberty they cannot be genetically changed. The Uchihas, both males, genetics are compatible so you picked on Itachi and now you pick on me, correct?"

"Oh, I like you." Orochimaru said bursting with happiness. He tugged his fist into a ball happily and moved abruptly in his seat excitedly. "You're not quite evil yet, but you have the makings of a great mad scientist. I'd love to work with you, you get things!"

"It'll have to wait. I have to get home soon or my boyfriend will send out the national guard." Sasuke muttered standing up. He nodded to Orochimaru and began to walk away. "If I reconsider your offer, I'll be back."

He was stopped abruptly when Orochimaru stood in front of him seemingly out of nowhere. He smiled with a twist. "You get things… you really do, so you get this too don't you. I'm exalted, I'm above humanity. You have no escape Sasuke."

Orochimaru touched his face lightly with two fingers flinging a lock of hair away from his cheek. "Now Sasuke, there are two things that can happen here. You can understand what I am trying to do…"

"I do get things. You on the other hand…" Sasuke said and shoved his hand away pushing past him. Sasuke opened the door and turned to Orochimaru with a last thought. "You don't listen too well. As you should assume from my statement earlier I'm gay… I don't mate with girls. What's the point? I am not going to pass along any genetics, I'll have to adopt. There's no chance for it continuing along in the Uchihas. And just so you know since I finally figured it out, Itachi's chaste and for a damn good reason."

"No!" Orochimaru yelled and grabbed Sasuke by the throat and threw him to the ground. Orochimaru knelt next to him and shook his head. "If you get past your stubbornness than and only than you would be truly able to get what you want out of life! Do you really want to live in Madara's blood money always hounded by press?"

"I'll take my chances." Sasuke said and pulled the knife out of his pants. Orochimaru quickly swatted it away and pounded the back of Sasuke's head into the ground. His teeth gritted, body tensing as 'oh God' left his lips. He caught his breath and swore. "You know, for someone who wants a successful experiment… you sure do treat your test subjects roughly."

"I don't care about a damn experiment. Itachi took everything from me. My career! My funding! My reputation! Everything!" Orochimaru yelled and noticed he had accidentally constricted his grip on Sasuke's neck. He loosened it and watched as Kabuto came in with a canister of sleeping gas and an administration mask. "Apply it quickly Kabuto."

"Yes sir." Kabuto placed the mask over Sasuke's mouth after pinning his head down and turned on the gas. Sasuke took two deep breaths, the blurring images of Orochimaru scowling angrily at him burning into a nightmare. Kabuto turned off the gas and removed the mask throwing it away. "I thought you said you weren't going to harm him?"

"I got carried away… accidents happen." Orochimaru said getting up and carrying Sasuke through the lab doors. He laid him down on the table and rolled up his sleeve. "Kabuto, get the serums, we're going to apply them all at once."

"But, we've never tested them all at once, only gradually." Kabuto said and Orchimaru gave him the deepest, darkest stare he could muster. Kabuto quickly backed up and began grabbing the bags. Orochimaru than turned back to Sasuke and began prepping his arm. "Sorry… I didn't mean to question."

"It's fine, Kabuto. Just get the bags set up." Orochimaru moved to his other side and rolled up that sleeve seeing the Black Bird tattoo. "Tattoos everywhere… He's two years too young for tattoos. Kids these days, I remember when only cutthroats had them."

"Times change sadly." Kabuto said getting the bags hung up. He sighed putting the last on up and saw as Orochimaru began sticking needles in his arms. Kabuto stood back and watched as Orochimaru furiously and perfectly set everything up and the bags began emptying into Sasuke.

Standing back a ways, Orochimaru admired his hand work happily smirking at his revenge. Kabuto pulled a small yellow bottle out and held it out to Orochimaru who looked perplexed at the gesture. "Now why would we do that?"

"But it's the stabilizer… without it Sasuke has a high chance of dying from an intense transformation." Kabuto muttered sticking it out further. After a few seconds of completely silence Kabuto felt like an idiot for suggesting a life saving maneuver.

"Well duh." Orochimaru snapped. He took the vial and put it back on the counter firmly. "Itachi's getting a present… one that's only partially assembled. I want to see if he and his friends can beat me and my friend."

"Oh, okay." Kabuto said and began walking out of the lab muttering under his breath. Orochimaru stood for a minute before sighing yet again. He climbed up on the counter and inspected the stabilizer coming to the conclusion that it was useless. He tossed it away behind him ignoring the shattering glass. "Kabuto, bring me my cookies won't you? And my tea!"

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

"He'll come round in a while." Orochimaru said letting Sasuke's eye snap shut. He smiled to himself as he went and grabbed two band-aids from a shelf and grabbed a sharpie. "This is momentous Kabuto."

"It is? Because you finally got your revenge?" Kabuto asked looking down at the unconscious teenager before him. "I always was kind of iffy on getting revenge. It seems like wasted effort."

"It is, but not when you can combine your revenge into an experiment. Than it is highly productive to get revenge. I can't wait to see what he's like in a couple of months… the serum makes you… nasty." Orochimaru laughed deeply at the though and pulled the needles out of Sasuke's arms placing the band-aids on. Kabuto saw the writing and snickered. "It can also be quite enjoyable. Now, Kabuto, why don't you take him out to the car and give him a ride to that dump they call a home."

"Right." Kabuto chirped happily as he grabbed Sasuke and began dragging him away. 'God this kid is heavy.' Kabuto took a deep breath while he paused for a second and noticed Orochimaru starring. He smiled laughing and continued to drag him away to the alley behind the house and eventually into a specially design van. Kabuto fondly called the van the Pedovan due to its automatically opening door, something Orochimaru never got.

Kabuto put him in the van right by the customized door and slammed it shut tightly muttering about having to do all the grunt work. Getting in the van he fastened his seat belt and started out, eyes glancing back at Sasuke every now and than. Kabuto drove a few blocks down and stopped the van. He slammed his forehead against the steering wheel, unbuckled than climbed in the back.

"This is just because I feel bad for you kid." Kabuto muttered and pulled out a small vial of golden liquid. Kabuto grabbed an injection gun from the wall and mounted the vial in it. The gun was pressed to the side of Sasuke's neck his body jolting as the stabilizer began flowing through his veins. Kabuto quickly tossed the gun out of the window going back to his seat.

Kabuto took off back down the road and turned on to Raven street speed increasing as he went down. Kabuto smiled wickedly as he pressed the door opening to the street Sasuke besides it. "Sorry kid, but I've always wanted to do this."

Kabuto turned hard with his foot slammed hard on the brakes. Sasuke's unconscious body was flung from the van and hit hard onto the cold cement in front of Black Bird. The door to the van shut and Kabuto was gone honking the horn very loudly. The Pedovan disappeared out of sight, Sasuke left like trash.

It was a while afterwards Sasuke awoke in pain and dizzy from the experience. He felt like he couldn't move couldn't breath. In a desperate measure Sasuke struggled for his phone and heard it ringing through to his brother. After a second of it being answered he coughed and was able to whisper. "Help… Outside…"

Sasuke began to cough violently, his body convulsed to each coming chest pain. He opened his eyes and noticed the unsightly red color across the sidewalk and the phone. He carefully touched what felt like someone else's hand to his mouth only to have his fingers pull back revealing blood. He felt a sharp pain in his stomach and curled into a ball, his eyes shut with it. 'Blood… Oh my God… Am I dying?'

"Sasuke!" Was yelled loudly as Itachi leapt from the stairs of the entry house and raced to his little brother. Itachi furiously grabbed him pulling him into his arms and looked around for any signs of danger. Glancing down he saw the blood Sasuke had coughed up. "Sasuke what happened?"

Itachi looked down at Sasuke's arms and saw two plain colored band-aids with markings on them. The first read 'I' and the second 'Won' in swirling hand writing. 'Oh God no…' Itachi took a second to calm down and than spoke as soothingly as he could to his baby brother. "Sasuke I need you to open your eyes. Sasuke open your eyes."

Sasuke just twitched in pain for a minute until he calmed down with Itachi petting his hair gently. Taking two deep breath's in Sasuke opened one of his eyes starring directly up at Itachi. "I hurt… Everywhere…"

"It's going to be okay, alright." Itachi said pulling Sasuke up and kissing him on the forehead. He adjusted Sasuke over his shoulder so he couldn't see the tears swelling in his eyes. He reached for Sasuke's bloody phone and began dialing.


	45. Bourbon and Boners

**Thanks for the 100 reviews, keep 'um coming! :) Love Aki**

'_Oh god there's so much blood. I don't think he's going to make it. I need help so badly…I think he's dying. You need to hurry, he starting to shake violently!' Through brief sobs on the phone to Sasori Itachi painted a dismal picture. Even through you could hear Sasori and Deidara rushing out of the house towards him and his ailing brother, it wasn't helping any._

Itachi dragged Sasuke as fast as an emotionally destroyed man could. They stumbled into the entrance house and he just held Sasuke close to his heart praying he had some religion. Sasuke had passed out again by the time Itachi had managed to get him inside. He laid their limp as if he was a puppet detached from his strings.

'_Hurry he's spitting up blood everywhere! I just… I don't know what to do… This is all my fault. Oh God this is all my fault. I should have just kept my mouth shut.' Itachi was told Sasori was hanging up now and was left all alone with his brother on the sidewalk. 'I told him…Oh God…'_

"Get him away from Sasuke, I need to get samples quickly." Sasori ordered as Kisame and Deidara pulled Itachi sobbing from his brother. Sasori knelt down next to Sasuke and shoved a needle quickly into his arm taking samples. Itachi absolutely broke down and surprisingly it was Deidara who grabbed him and held him so he didn't have to watch. "Kisame go get the blood packets, we need to do a transfusion! Kisame!"

"Right." Kisame said watching as Deidara scowled at him for starring. Kisame quickly ran out grabbed what he needed from Sasori's car and rushed back in to find Itachi and Deidara had disappeared. Kisame knelt down and began to hook him up the bags and the spilling hose. "How's he look?"

"Check his eyes. This is defiantly a revenge assault." Sasori said and watched as Sasuke's blood started to spill onto the floor. He shifted his position so he didn't get any on his pants. "We need to move him to a bed as soon as the transfers done, it'll make the transformation a bit more comfortable. Are you listening?"

"Sasuke, he looks just like Itachi when I went in to get him with Madara, minus the blood. Orochimaru just wants to make him suffer… Their family's cursed or something." Kisame mutter and began adding blood to the boy. "Itachi's wreaked."

"I noticed. You should have heard him on the phone." Sasori said and watched as one bag of blood empty into the boy. Kisame looked down at Sasuke and just shook his head. "Well, detach the needles and take him to his room. I'll go to my lab and see what I can find out. If needed, send Deidara to get more blood, alright?"

Kisame nodded and pulled the needles out shoving them in his pockets. He grabbed the boy in his arms hoping this would end well.

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

"Just sit down and relax, Sasori and Kisame have it covered. Alright?" Deidara said trying to calm Itachi down. Itachi just sat down on the couch and immediately threw his face into his hands. Deidara sat down next to Itachi and curled his legs up to his chest wrapping his arms around them. "I know this seems cold, but being an emotional wreak will make things worse. You'll get in the way, distract from his care, and when he wakes up if you go all to tears you'll make him feel like shit because he made you worry so much."

Itachi stopped and looked straight at Deidara to just shake his head and break down further. Deidara placed a hand on his back and rubbed it gently. "It'll be okay, they're all evil geniuses, if they fail it'll be too cliché."

"If they win it'll be too cliché. This is just real life kicking in." Itachi snapped coldly. "That bastards trying to take him from me…"

"You did what you had to do ratting Orochimaru out. You know you did the right thing… He'd get Sasuke either way." Deidara said and furnished a bottle of liquor. "Here drink it, it'll steady your nerves."

Deidara held it out for a while before Itachi took it and chugged it. Deidara usually thought people just swigged when given a bottle, but obviously Itachi had a different perspective on it. He took the entire bottle of drink and than handed the bottle back. To start crying again as his brother was carried through the basement to upstairs. Itachi calmed down after a few sharp huffs of air and turned to Deidara, "Do you have another one of those?"

"Uh… no, I only carry one at a time. I'll go run to the corner store though…" Deidara offered and than check his wallet. He counted in his head and than looked back at Itachi walking backwards out. "I'm going to get you something stronger; I'll be back in a few minutes. Just stay there."

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

Kisame set Sasuke down on his bed and felt his forehead. There wasn't a temperature so his body wasn't fighting off the new information. Sighing, the tall man left the room and came back with a bucket. Normally he'd be talking to the person, however he felt that Sasuke would prefer the silence if he could hear. He sat the bucket down and reattached the drainage hose letting Sasuke's blood slowly dribble out.

Kisame than went into Suigetsu room and grabbed a knife from the wall. He than used it to nail the new bag of blood to Sasuke's wall. With the current now going Kisame sat down on the floor shaking his head. He sat there in silence until the bag on the wall had emptied. He quickly replaced it stabbing the new bag in its place and resumed the loathsome mood in his place on the floor.

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

Deidara walked into the room to see that Itachi hadn't moved a muscle, but he had cried a lot more in the five minutes he was gone. Deidara sat down on the couch with a paper a bag and pulled out a bottle of Jim Beam. Deidara held it up to him and smiled. "You bought me bourbon?"

"You don't like bourbon?" Deidara asked and Itachi shook his head taking the bottle. He looked at it for a second and opened it. He drank a bit and set it down on the table starring up at the ceiling. "I'm down here drinking and my brother's upstairs going through Hell."

"I thought Sasuke didn't like you to worry." Deidara said remembering the conversation he wasn't supposed to hear. Itachi gave him an 'I'll kill you' look than dropped it and chose the bottle instead. "Sorry, but you're being… I don't know how you usually are so…"

"This is how I usually am, worried and filled with regret." Itachi said and began to chug the bottle. Deidara quickly snatched it away hiding it on the other side of him. Itachi just looked at him and fell back against the couch.

"Jesus man, I didn't think you were a drunk." Deidara said and set the bottle down on the floor next to the couch. "Listen, I know Sasuke's in serious trouble and everything and the alcohol will at least calm you down some, but there's no need to chug bourbon… ever. It's just a bad idea. I don't even know how you managed that.

"I mean… I'm supposed to be the one who flies off the handle. You're the stable point of the group, and we need you to be that. I… What I'm trying to say is…" Deidara scratched his head and looked down for a second before turning to Itachi with the idea. "You know Star Trek after Vulcan gets blown up…. You need to be more Spock-ish, get rid of the emotions temporarily and be the Captain of the Enterprise!" Deidara yelled standing up with a fist in the air.

"Did you seriously just say that? You're such a nerd." Itachi rolled his eyes and pointed to the bottle. Deidara looked at it and grabbed it holding it out to Itachi. Itachi pressed the bottle towards him with two fingers gaining back some of his stability. He sighed deeply and stood up. "I think you need some of the bourbon too."

"Wait, where are you going?" Deidara asked as Itachi went to move by. Deidara stuck his arms out blocking the easy way out. "How do I know you not going to go and do something completely stupid because you'll be becoming drunk?"

Itachi shook his head and took a step forward wrapping his arms around Deidara and hugging him. He patted him on the back and let go. "You are a complete asshole most of the time, but thanks. I'm just going to check on Sasuke." Itachi jumped on the table and walked around him going upstairs. Deidara just shook his head and sat down with the bottle taking a swig of it.

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

Kisame, full of boredom, had discovered his inner artist. He had spent the past twenty minutes making a detailed drawing of a shark eating a woman with large breasts. The only problem was he had created the work on Sasuke's floor and worse yet out of Sasuke's drained blood.

"Seriously?" Itachi asked sneaking into the room. Kisame jumped a bit and held his chest out of the fright he had received. "You know, you're going to have to clean that all up. Sasuke's going to be pissed about it, especially since he'll have a well-endowed lady on his floor."

"Well, I didn't have any paper." Kisame defended. Itachi added 'or pens' and ruffled through Sasuke's stack of random writings and drawings and handed him a blank piece of paper. Kisame carefully set it on the drawing and pressed down evenly to get the drawing without smudging. He looked at it and smiled. "That looks even better on paper."

"Go get a cloth to clean this up." Itachi said without a hint of emotion. Kisame got up and quickly left the room in search of a rag. Itachi walked over to Sasuke to see the new baid-aids Kisame had applied with little ducks on them. He rolled his eyes and sat down on the bed next to his brother and stared at his face wanting his eyelids to peel back and show the dark blue they had used to display.

After a minute Kisame had walked back in and began to scrub the floor silently. When he finished he grabbed the bucket of blood and turned to Itachi. "Hey… I know seeing your brother all messed up like this must be hard… Sorry this had to happen to Sasuke."

"Thanks Kisame." Itachi said and watched as Kisame walked out of the room shutting the door behind him. Itachi immediately fell over next to Sasuke and wrapped his arm around him curling up on his stomach. "Wake up…"

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

_It was white with fog and mist around, but that seemed to escape Sasuke's grasp as he stood there smiling at the blond before him. He hadn't remembered how they got there, or where they were, but that didn't seem to matter. Sasuke placed a tender hand on him and smiled. "Naruto, I think I messed up."_

_Naruto just smiled warmer and stepped foreword to the Uchiha. Sasuke blushed and diverted his eyes until he couldn't stand himself anymore and grabbed Naruto; one hand round the waist and one hand on his ass. Sasuke slipped his tongue excitedly in Naruto's mouth and suddenly they were on the ground. Sasuke looked up into the nothingness and smiled looking at Naruto as he pulled off wondering where his partner's mind was. "What?"_

_Sasuke just looked at him and smiled. Naruto smiled deeper and slid backwards grabbing his zipper. Sasuke watched nervously as a hand went inside his pants. Naruto pulled his penis out and began jerking it slowly. Sasuke twitched as his hand moved. He grasped his fingers at the floor around him trying to reach for a stable point to clench but found none. It was than he felt something wet against the head. _

_Sasuke let out a deep groaned and watched as he began to see the blond hair began to move slowly up and down. Sasuke's hand slipped down and grabbed the top of Naruto's hair holding him down. He gasped more and than jammed him up and down with an unknown force._

"_You're probably liking this, aren't you?" Said a voice echoing as Naruto came back up and smiled at him as he tried to get his breathing under control. Sasuke ignored the voice and watched as Naruto crawled back up their lips wanting attention. Sasuke undid Naruto's button pushing the pants down off him to find he was enjoying this as much as he was. Sasuke with Naruto helping got the pants entirely off and it was clear that it was Naruto today. _

_Sasuke slid a finger down and began to open him. Naruto groaned a bit at it and than bit his lip as Sasuke slid another finger in. It was than he released that deep groan that had gotten to Sasuke the night they tattooed Naruto. He couldn't stand it anymore; the sounds coming from his lover were too much to bear. His mind numbed by lust Sasuke removed his fingers and slammed Naruto down onto his shaft. The blond gapped at breath and Sasuke knew he was wrong to do that. He immediately shot his hand to Naruto's face and began to apologize. "I'm so sorry, Naruto. I couldn't stand not having you. I'm so sorry."_

"_It's okay." Naruto said grabbing his hand and kissing it. Naruto kissed it more and than let go of the hand smiling down at Sasuke. "Close your eyes."_

_Sasuke did and felt Naruto go up and down on him, the tightness of him. He moaned deeply enjoying the feeling. He felt finger tips glide softly over his stomach sending shockwaves across his body. He squirmed at the sensation, teeth clenched with a deep moan sounding through the mist. _Suddenly he heard a pounding on his chest and caught a glimpse of something black immediately under his head as his eyes opened_._ "Shut up… you're too noisy…"

Itachi re-curled up with his brother and easily went back to sleep. Sasuke was awake, he felt hot and nauseous, but he also felt something else, he looked down at his pants and noticed his dream had sparked something. He shoved his brother away from him and jumped from the bed. Itachi woke up and caught sight of him. "_Mon frere!_"

"Just a second." Sasuke yelled running down the hall and into the boys' bathroom locking the door. A few seconds latter Itachi was knocking asking him rapid fire questions. Sasuke paced for a second trying to think of anything to get the erection to go away and it wasn't working. He sighed and yelled back at his brother. "_Je suis bien!"_

"You just don't run out like that. Tell me what's wrong already." Itachi knocked again and waited huffing out a deep breath. Behind him Deidara came running up and slapped his hand on Itachi's shoulder. "Sasuke's in there; I'm not sure what's wrong yet. Sasuke come out already, you're drawing a crowd."

"I can't… I have a slight guy problem." Sasuke answered back and tried to get his mind to focus off what he had just been dreaming. He began pacing however that made him breathe harder which made him think about how out of breath he was in the dream.

On the other side of the door Itachi just nodded to himself. He smiled slightly. "It happens to all guys; don't be so embarrassed by it. Do you need me to come in there?"

"Hell no!" Sasuke shrieked back. He sat down on the toilet seat top and tried to focus his thoughts elsewhere and they followed as such: cake, cigarettes, old movies, popcorn, salt, water, the beach, Naruto in the sand. "DAMN IT! What do I do?"

"Take a shower and use cold water. If all else fails…." Itachi said and was tossed back by the reaction.

"You were _NOT_ just going to say _THAT_ to me! Go away! You're embarrassing." Sasuke said making his big brother laugh out loud. Itachi nodded to Deidara to walk away with him and let Sasuke have his peace to deal with the issue. They were half way down the hall when Sasuke found something that made it go away instantly and made him scream. There was a thud and than Itachi kicked the door open to find his brother sitting on the floor, mouth and eyes wide open. He turned to Itachi with blood red eyes and nearly speechless asked: "You don't have contacts do you?"

"_Non, mon __frère__, non_." Itachi sat down next to his brother and grabbed his hand holding it tightly. He wrapped his arm around his brother coddling him. "It'll be okay, you'll just see a little bit better."

Deidara stepped in and held out the bottle of Jim Beam. Itachi eyed him with a nasty glare. He snatched it from Deidara and held it to Sasuke. "He's right, drink a bit, it'll calm you down."

Sasuke took the bottle and took a quick swig. He swallowed hard and than quickly handed it back to Deidara coughing a bit. Deidara waited for a minute before he felt he over stayed and walked out closing the newly broken door. Sasuke began to whimper out little apologies; Itachi tried to shush them away to no avail. "I didn't listen… He gave me his card… I went to see him."

Itachi stopped dead and looked at Sasuke with a dead glare. "Madara's really responsible for Mom and Dad's deaths. Why didn't you tell me?"

"It didn't concern you at the time. You were better off not knowing." Itachi stood up and turned towards the mirror observing his unique eyes and looked down in disappointment and anger.

"They were my parents too!" Sasuke growled. "I had a right to know."

"You were ten! You could comprehend what was really happening, and seems like you haven't changed anything! I told you he was dangerous! I told you." Itachi bellowed and pounded his fist into the wall standing up. He ran his finger through his hair and shook his head. "Do you have any idea what could have happened, Sasuke? You were dying out there on the fucking pavement!"

Itachi punched a hole in the wall and looked back at Sasuke with the red eyes. He shook his head angrily and pulled his fist from the wall walking out. The door slammed leaving Sasuke to fend for himself in a time where he desperately needed someone to look after him. Sasuke curled his knees up to his chest wrapping his arms tightly around them wishing he had his _mon __frère_to comfort him.


	46. The New Dean

The miserable loathsome state Sasuke was in followed by a dark loneliness that lead to him constantly checking the clock on his phone. He checked it twice a minute every minute with tears streaming down his face until it finally said that school was out. Sasuke hit the talk button so hard he thought the phone might break in two. It took a ring or two but Naruto answered only to be interrupted. "Class is out. _Get off the phone! _Class is out, get over it! _You have detention! _Anko, stop being so mean! It's my boyfriend! …_Is he cute?_ Anko! _Fine! You're getting off the hook now scram!_"

There was a deep sigh in the phone and some rustling. "Sorry about that, we had Anko subbing. Kakashi's at some convention with Jiraiya supposedly… Are you crying…? Is everything okay?"

"How fast can you guys make it home?" Sasuke asked still curled up on the bathroom floor. He sniffled and grabbed his pant leg tightly. "You were right… it all… it was a trap…"

"Can we have Shika drop us off? _Are you volunteering me?_ Sasuke's in trouble. _Get in the car, all of you. _Five minutes, alright?" Naruto cooed through the phone. "I'll stay on with you… So what happened?"

"I'm not sure exactly but…" Sasuke started coughing had to set the phone down for a minute. The coughing could be heard through the phone by all. Suigetsu turned to Naruto as they fitted into Shikamaru's tattered second hand car. "What's wrong with Sasuke?"

"I don't know yet." Naruto said. The coughing stopped and the Uchiha came back on the phone. "Are you okay? That sounded worse than terrible."

"I'll be fine." Sasuke lied looking at the blood and mucous on the floor. He took a sharp breath of air and tossed himself against the wall and watched as Deidara came rushing upstairs. "Just a second." Sasuke covered the phone. "Can you help me?"

"Yea, I got it." Deidara said getting toilet paper off the floor and wiping it off the floor. Sasuke picked the phone back up. "Hey, I'm gonna let you go. Just hurry up alright?"

"Yea." The phone clicked dead on Naruto's end and he shoved it away. He frowned and looked at Shiakmaru who was asking why he should be doing sixty inside the city. Naruto turned to look at his fellow Black Birds. "'Cause something doesn't feel right. Sasuke went to Orochimaru's… that creepy guy everyone told him to avoid."

"Oh my God… That idiot." Karin muttered sitting back against the seat. Suigetsu just swore under his breath and sat back looking over the area as they came up on the entrance house. "If he's not dead by tonight I'm going to kill him. Itachi told him… Itachi?"

Karin looked over on the steps to see the eldest Uchiha in tears on the steps with a bottle. Over his mouth he had a hand clamped. They evacuated, Naruto thanking Shikamaru for the ride. Karin and Suigetsu both took seats by Itachi's side trying to get him to calm down and give up the bottle.

Naruto moved past them running through both houses until he found himself inside Black Bird's second story walking towards the open door of the bathroom. He heard quiet talking that shut off all together as he stepped in the bathroom. Deidara was seated in front of Sasuke glaring for a second before standing. "Get him to calm down."

Naruto nodded as they switched out guard. He sat right next to Sasuke and pulled him in, his hands grasped as tightly as they would without hurting him. They didn't speak for a while until Sasuke just muttered: "I'm so sorry."

"I should have just knocked you unconscious… You may have hated me for it, but…" Naruto said and stroked the brunette's hair shushing him warmly. As Sasuke clamed down he pulled apart from Naruto and started to tell him everything.

"He kept going on about me being his legacy and than how Itachi ruined everything and than he knocked me out and I woke up coughing blood on the side walk. After that I passed out again and had this really dirty dream and woke up to come in here and Itachi was picking on me about it. Than I saw my eyes and screamed and Itachi calmed me down only to get pissed. He was just so mad… He punched that hole in the wall." Sasuke pointed to it and than broke down crying. Sasuke fell upon Naruto grabbing his shirt for dear life. "I royally fucked up and now Itachi hates me."

"Sasuke," Naruto said quietly. Sasuke took a minute to look up at him after rubbing the tears from his eyes. "Itachi's bawling his eyes out on the front steps with a bottle. I'm pretty sure he's over hating you already."

"I don't think he ever hated me in the first place." Sasuke sniffled and sat up grabbing his phone and dialing putting it on speaker. Naruto thought it was so he could hear; Sasuke's arm was actually just too weak to hold it anymore. It rang for a second before it was picked up. There was a deep sigh and Itachi muttered answering causing Sasuke to break a little inside. "_Mon frere…_ I'm sorry. If I could walk normally I'd come tell you in person, but my legs kind of feel like jelly."

"It's… okay." Itachi said slowly. He sighed again and sniffled in sync with Sasuke. "I'm going to go visit them… Do you want to come? I'll come up and get you."

"No, just tell 'um… I love 'um and that… I miss them." Sasuke hung his head inhaling hard. He took a second, one that Itachi understood to stay quiet through and that Naruto could never comprehend. "He told me…. he told me what Madara did… He killed our parents… Damn it…"

"It's alright. He'll never be happy another minute of his life… I'll make sure of it." The phone shut off and Sasuke hit the off button letting it slide off his lap. He stared at it with a gazed of anger, it curled his lips made him cringe. Naruto quickly grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly. The red eyes turned to him almost whimpering. "Will you carry me to my room?"

Naruto laughed and stood up and than easily scooped up Sasuke in his arms and carefully went out in the hall. Sasuke grunted a bit and Naruto opened his door and set him down on his bed. Sasuke laid down and with some pain in it grined. "Thank you for carrying me like a little girl."

"No problem, kitty." Naruto joked and sat down on the edge of the bed. He stared at Sasuke a minute before Sasuke smirked and stuck his tongue out. Naruto smiled. "So, was it worth it? Going to see him?"

"No, it kind of takes away the closure I had from it just being the cops. I've been living with the ass who had my parents killed. Kind of feels like I failed them." Sasuke said and sighed. He leaned his head back and began couching. Sasuke forced himself to breath through it ending the fit. He rubbed his chest. "I wish we had some cough medicine… Hurts like Hell all over."

"Do you know what he's done exactly?" Naruto asked moving up to grab his hand. Sasuke shook his head than used it to point to the space on the pillow next to him. Naruto lay down next to Sasuke before kissing him on the forehead. He stopped and moved his hand there. "You've got a pretty bad fever."

"Figures." Sasuke turned into his boyfriend and pressed his face against his arm. He let out a pissed off grunt and Naruto patted his head until he fell asleep. After a few minutes Suigetsu and Karin wandered up and walked in silently. Karin whispered "How is he?"

"Sick… He's got a high fever and he's coughing pretty badly." Naruto said back and watched as Karin stroked a lock of hair on Sasuke's head. Her tongue clicked softly and she smiled with a weak devoted warmth. "That guy messed him up; he's got red eyes now. I think he's touchy about it so don't bring it up, okay?"

"No problem, not talking about Sasuke's quirks is something we are _very_ skilled with." Karin assured and nodded to Suigetsu that it was time to head out. She took a couple steps and waited while Suigetsu stared at Sasuke. The kappa turned his head like a child not understanding what was happening. Suigetsu sighed, "Remind him when he wakes up he owes me an ice cream cone."

"Suigetsu… He does not." Karin said and dragged him out by the ear. She knew well it was his way with coping with the situation, she just hoped Naruto had figured this out. Naruto was busy worrying about Sasuke too much to even consider anything they've said as more than noise. Naruto sat up and pulled Sasuke's sweater off him so he wouldn't over heat. He carefully moved him on his back and than sat himself down on the floor. He leaned against the bed looking straight foreword listening to Karin yell at Suigetsu for his comment. It was something to laugh about through the dark times he supposed.

Long after the noise died away Naruto's head dropped and he lulled into an uneasy sleep waiting for Sasuke to wake.

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

Itachi dropped to his knees before the headstone and glared at the writing as he had done so many times in the past. Slowly he rested his forehead against the marble letting the stone cool his head. He sighed and just began to think and think of everything he wanted to tell them. It came down to one simple sentence that flourished into so many more.

"I will not abandon him, I promise." Itachi said softly into the graveyard winds. He inhaled the sweetened air and exhaled feeling dramatically better. "So much stuff has been going on… I wish you two were here to guide us. I've got my classes all set, and I'll be graduating on time in June. Sasuke needs to go to school more often, and listen to me more, and be a little bit humble. He's a good kid though, you'd be proud of how strong he is when he stops fooling around for a minute."

Itachi stopped and sat back for a second thinking. He lowered his head to the grass wrapping his arms around and muttered to the caskets below. He felt his eyes water and he gasped through a breath; he cringed as the first tear fell. "I feel like I failed him. It's my duty as his big brother to protect him and help him to learn from his mistakes… But I'm not sure if I can when we're in a place where we have our backs against the wall and I'm scared… I'm scared I might lose him. Don't let Sasuke die, he's all I have."

Itachi titled his head up and kissed the headstone right between his parents' names. He pulled back and smiled, "Sasuke wanted me to remind you that we love you and we miss you, but we're in no hurry to see you again. Help us through this. Please. We need to hit that one percent just one more time."

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

Nagato didn't know what to say when Sasori had called him to the graveyard. He gathered Konan and got in the car quickly and raced there only to find Sasori waiting leaning against his car watching something silently across the way. They got out of their car and walked over to see a hunched over figure in front of a tombstone in the distance. "Who's that?"

"Itachi… That's his parent's grave. He comes here to pray when things go bad." Sasori muttered quietly. He than turned his head and watched as he sat up. "This morning… Orochimaru got Sasuke, I need your help. I'm afraid this is more of your category of genetics."

Sasori pulled out a vial of blood and handed to him. Konan shook her head and took off her heels and began to march across the grass. Nagato took it and shoved it in his pocket. As soon as she had stepped out of ear: "What's his chances?"

"I'd say thirty-three percent based off of what I've seen. We can't afford failure here, not when a child is involved." Sasori said turning his attention to Konan who knelt down next to Itachi. She placed a hand on his back and he collapsed over onto the grass. "I think if Sasuke dies… Itachi's bound to follow on his heels."

"I understand, I won't fail." Nagato said and jogged over to where Konan was trying to cheer Itachi up. She looked up and shook her head. Nagato knelt down and shook Itachi's shoulder firmly to see him look up with a few tears coming down. "He saved me, so I'm going to save him, do you understand?"

Itachi nodded silently and quickly wiped the tears away from him face. He stood up and was escorted back to the cars by the two. He looked at Sasori and nodded in recognition. Sasori opened up the passenger side door and let him in. "I need an analysis fast, do you understand?"

"I understand," Nagato said and watched as Sasori got in and took off. Nagato pulled out the vial of blood and stared at it. He looked at Konan and watched her expression. He slipped it back in his coat pocket and smiled at her. "Can we make a little detour…? My parents are buried around here somewhere."

"Sure." She said walking up and kissing him. She laid her head on his shoulder and he clasped it to him with one hand.

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

Sasori parked the car in the empty street in front of Black Bird and looked to the stairs to see Deidara on the steps with the bottle of Jim Beam just starring at them. Sasori walked over to ask why he had the bottle but the chance escaped him. Itachi grabbed the bottle and sat down next to him and took a swallow. He handed the bottle back and leaned against Deidara. Sasori strolled past inside leaving them to the bottle.

He was completely ignored through the house; the basement was empty along with the first floor and the only sounds of life he heard from the second floor was the low infrequent snoring. Sasori walked down to the open door to see Sasuke on the bed and Naruto sitting on the floor. He snuck in and clasped a hand on Sasuke wrist and took his pulse. "Sasori?"

"You're conscious now, that's good." Sasori said watching as Sasuke sat up. The scientist reclaimed his hand and watched as Sasuke patted Naruto on the head. The blond woke up and yawned nodding to Sasori. He smiled and lied. "You should be fine. Just take it easy, alright? Itachi's already drinking, I don't know what's the next step for him, but I imagine it's scary."

"Yea… He flips out and goes on rampages." Sasuke muttered and sat foreword. He stretched and looked over at Naruto. "Where are Karin and Suigetsu at? I have this strange want of meat… Lots and lots of meat."

"I didn't see them on my way up." Sasori said. Naruto stood up promising to be back in a second and disappeared. Sasori sat down on the bed and stared straight ahead. "I was nominated, this morning, for the new Dean."

"You'd make a good Dean. Do you know who nominated you?" Sasori nodded and handed the paper over to Sasuke. Sasuke opened it and read it carefully. He smiled and handed it back. "Wow… I did not see that coming. I never knew Tsunade liked you."

"Apparently she remembered Deidara and someone told her he was living with me. I guess this is a way of saying thanks or something." Sasori said and watched as Karin came into the room with Naruto behind her. She rubbed her eyes and sat down on the bed next to Sasuke. "You're ruining nap time."

"I know." Sasuke muttered. "When Jugo gets home, would you two go get dinner? I need meat for some odd reason, and possibly some chest decongestant."

"I guess." She said and stretched. She stood up and walked out waving. Naruto took her place on the bed and wrapped his arms around Sasuke yawning. Sasori stood up and nodded to them leaving them alone also. Sasuke turned to Naruto and kissed his forehead. "So, what'd I miss in class?"

"Kakashi said just to watch a movie but Anko came up with her own agenda and we ended up writing about our toes." Naruto said and smiled. "I turned my toe into a 1920s gangster because I was bored. She made me prove it so I drew a face with a hat on it."

"That's possibly one of the weirdest things I've heard of, and that's really saying something coming from what happens to us."


	47. Visine

"Cherry or strawberry… Cherry or strawberry… or cola…" Karin said looking between the bottles of pop sitting idly on the shelf. She growled at the options trying to think of what would have been best. She shrugged quickly and put all three into the cart. After all, Suigetsu still had Sasuke's debit card and it still had a lot of money to its name. She than moved a little down the isle and got Kool-Aid packets of every flavor. After a second Karin felt the metal cart jerk and watched as Suigetsu dropped a pile of twenty frozen meals in the cart and smiled. "Do we really need that many?

"Did you forget how I eat?" He asked quickly. Karin smiled simply and pushed the kart down the isle. He watched her face carefully for a second before sighing. Suigetsu shook his head grabbing the side of the cold metal cart to get her attention. "So, every time you smile at me what are you thinking about up there, because whatever it is seems evil?"

"Pushing you off a cliff or forcing you into a dark corner. One of the two." She quickly stopped the cart and tossed in cheese puffs. She smiled at him again, the end of her lips curling tightly. "You worry too much."

"Hey…" Came from behind them and they saw Sai stop just short of them. He quickly bowed to them adjusting the shopping basket in his hands. "I'm sorry to bother you while shopping, but is Naruto with you? We've been trying to get a hold of him."

"No, he's at home. Sorry. He's been busy taking care of Sasuke. Sasuke gets super clingy when it comes to having Naruto around, especially when he's sick…" Karin felt a hard hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Jugo glaring at Sai in an over protective mode. "Back off, he's a friend of Naruto's. Sai, this is my father, Jugo."

"Um, hello." Sai waved nervously. Jugo nodded his head in acknowledgement but his eyes didn't give anyway leeway. Sai just gulped and continued. "Well, a lot of the group was hoping to talk with him, there are some people Ino bullied into apologizing to him. Here, this is my card; have him call me when he gets a chance okay?"

Sai dug out his wallet and handed Karin a simple business card. Karin shoved it away in Suigetsu pocket and said goodbye. As Sai bowed to them and walked past them with a small basket in his hand than disappeared from the aisle. Jugo looked down at her. "Is he okay?"

"Yes, he's fine Jugo." Karin said waving him off. She plucked his hand from her shoulder like it was tainted and moved down the isle to get more food. "He's one of Naruto's old friends from school, and not one of the asshole ones."

"I'm just being careful." Jugo pointed out and poked her in the back of the head before dropping things for sandwiches in the cart. They looked over the food and came to a common consensus: they mind as well buy a tent since they have all the food for a camping trip.

---------(black bird)---------

Sasuke still wasn't feeling well at all; Naruto could see it in his face. Sasuke's cheeks were flushed and when he touched his cheek it felt like he was touching a stove. Sasuke was starting to act like the sickness was bothering him and grunted loudly than exhaled a strong breath onto Naruto's neck where he had perched his head. Naruto turned a bit and was barely able to see his face from the vantage point he had. "Do you want me to get you a washcloth for your forehead or something?"

"That'd be nice…" He muttered softly. Naruto slid away from him and off the bed and disappeared down to the boy's bathroom. Sasuke turned over on his back wishing he had a fan or something, even a hand fan made out of a scrap piece of paper. It felt like his blood in his veins was literally boiling him now. He was half tempted to ask Naruto if he could carry him upstairs so he could take a cold bath, but he didn't want to ask that of him. After what happened, after he had swore it would be okay, he didn't want to come off as weak to Naruto for some reason.

This wasn't Sasuke's normal compulsion to look tough or strong, this one had rooted somewhere in his head. It was psychological: he thought that if he looked weak, someone would take Naruto away from him, or worse Naruto would leave. Sasuke realized how stupid he was, it just wasn't going away. He didn't want to mess it up, and he felt like he had all because he didn't listen when Naruto told him flat out 'no.'

Sasuke was cursing himself and his stubbornness when Naruto glided back in and set the cloth down on his forehead. Sasuke looked up at him with the red eyes and stared at the blond. Naruto noticed the difference from his usual look and frowned. "What's with that face? You look like someone killed your cat."

"I'm sick, I don't know…" Sasuke sighed and folded the cloth down over his eyes. Abominations, as Sasuke thought they were, he didn't want them to be stared at like that. He didn't deserve that loving stare. "I feel emo…"

"Well, you are kind of emo. I mean… you are." Naruto said thinking it through. "It's not like it's a bad thing though. At least you're not crazy hard-core Goth, especially one of the ones who go to the mall and just stand there. They creep me out sometimes. It's like they're asking for people to run away from them."

"Yep." Sasuke said and felt Naruto's weight on the bed next to him. It was than Sasuke felt the tingle of fingertips tracing down his arm to his hand where their fingers melted together. Naruto was watching Sasuke's face when he got a smile on his face. It was a small one, his lips were flushed red from his fever and his face was paled so much he looked like he was made of porcelain. Naruto leaned over and kissed him carefully for a brief second. Sasuke let out a little amused noise. Naruto pulled back to see the smile grow.

"Cheer up emo kid, and get some more rest." Naruto said and kissed him firm on the cheek. He squeezed his hand with gentleness and let go of Sasuke. Naruto stood up and hoped Sasuke would follow his advice and get some sleep as he walked out closing the door half way. Naruto sighed deeply, yet silently and walked over to his room, it was cool in the dark, but he flipped on the light and found it unappealing for some reason. He threw himself down on his bed turning on the PS3 wanting to have something else to do; he didn't though.

---------(black bird)---------

"Algerining." Jugo said looking down at Karin. They were playing a game, a dumb game that none of them liked, however it passed the time while they were walking to the corvette. Karin thought for a second.

"I don't know how to spell it but I think I may have been convicted of it." Suigetsu muttered and unlocked the trunk setting the groceries in and taking them from the other two. They stood there in silence until Karin started spelling. "A-L-G-E-R-I—N-I-N-G?"

"Yep. Now I have to do another crossword to get more weird words." Jugo said and shut the trunk. He sighed and gave a quick scan of the parking lot. Afterwards he calmed a bit and pointed a finger at each of them. "You two head directly home, you park in the alley. You be careful."

"We got it." Suigetsu said and got in the driver's seat. "You sure you don't want a ride."

Karin shook her head and just told him to drive. Jugo agreed walked out of the parking lot waving. "Didn't I tell you, he's dating one of his co-workers. The angry one with the puffy red hair."

"No… seriously? Oh my god…. That means you might be getting a mommy." Suigetsu picked with a giant smile starting the car. Karin slugged him in the arm and made a face. Suigetus grabbed it saying 'ow' and telling her that that wasn't nice. "Don't be mad at me, it might happen, and than you'll get to be a flower girl."

"I'm too old to be a flower girl." She said and than noticed two figures that looked familiar in the rear view mirror. They began walking towards the car, both tall, one with white hair and the other looking like he was sewn together. It took a second for her to recognize them, Karin screamed. "DRIVE!"

"What?" Suigetsu said and without thinking peeled out of the parking lot. He swerved as he hit the pavement hard and had to use some advanced maneuver to avoid hitting a large truck next to them. "What the Hell was that?"

"It was two of those goons we pulled out before the fire, just without the lab coats." Karin said and began sighing. She scratched her head nervously looking for an idea on what they should do about the two following them. "We should tell somebody, we should call Itachi."

"Are you serious, Itachi's a fucking disaster right now or do you not remember him on the front steps? Call…. God, call that blond dude you exchange hair tips with. He blows shit up, that's awesome." Suigetsu said and glanced over at her quickly. He pulled the silver corvette over to a payphone and watched as Karin quickly hopped out. She dug through her pocket and inserted the coins and quickly dialed. "Hey Deidara, it's Karin. Two of Madara's groupies are tailing us."

There was a silence on the phone followed by ruffling and some swearing. "Um… Interesting. Can you shoot them?"

"Like we carry gats with us." Karin said obviously. "We're both 16!"

"Just get back here as fast as you can then. If it's the normal hunting party, they'll kill you without blinking." Deidara hung up on the other end and left Karin slightly pissed. She walked back to the car and quickly buckled. "He said to just get home as fast as we can."

"Great, and we're on the other side of town."

---------(black bird)---------

"I told you we should have just stayed in the car, no you fuckin' bastard, you had to go get them without the fuckin' car and than tell me I'm being lazy for not getting out of the fuckin' car!" Hidan yelled at Kakuzu who was un-phased by the tantrum. Kakuzu simply sighed and calmly looked at Hidan. "What's gotten into you today?"

"I don't know, maybe the fact that the police are after us, a crazy scientist is trying to court us, and our boss is in jail! How about that?" Kakuzu said and went back to the car. "It's bad enough the only instruction we've gotten from Madara is to keep track of them, but than he tells us to play nice with Orochimaru but keep our distance… The bastard."

"Who Madara?" Hidan asked through a loud sigh.

"No, Orochimaru, you idiot!" Kakuzu said placing his good arm on the car's hood. Hidan shrugged innocently. "Though Madara's not getting far behind. If I wasn't aware of the repercussions, I would quit."

"Oh, you mean him hiring goon 'A' who's a crazy psychopathic killer to hunt you down so his secrets don't get out? Don't worry; I would volunteer to skin your ass." Hidan said trying to be reassuring. He placed a hand on Kakuzu's back and smiled.

"Asshole!" Kakuzu quickly punched him in the face knocking him down to the pavement. Hidan grabbed his nose, bleeding, and began swearing as loudly as he could. "You should be thankful my other arm's broken, or your face would have been annihilated."

---------(black bird)---------

Karin knocked on Naruto's open door before walking in with Sai's card held out. He took it and looked at the text. "Sai was at the store, he wants you to call him soon. Apparently they've been trying to get a hold of you so they can talk with you."

"Okay, cool thanks." Naruto said grabbing his phone from the charger. He dialed the number on the card when Suigetsu came up from behind Karin and asked 'did you tell him yet?' She shook her head and Naruto looked up at them through the ringing phone to his ear. "We ran into some of Madara's people."

"_Hello?" _The phone answered. Naruto quickly said hi back. "Sorry I'm a pain in the ass to get a hold of. Karin said you wanted to talk about something…?"

Naruto listened closely for a few minutes while Suigetsu and Karin abandoned his doorway, he could hear their footsteps. They were checking up on Sasuke. The footsteps walked away. "I'll have to ask, we kind of have some…." '_Some people who could/would kill us' _"some people who are really super upset at us. Yea, goodbye."

Naruto put a heavy foot on the floor and quickly walked across the hall and knocked at Itachi's door. He waited a second before the elder Uchiha opened the door and looked down at him. It was evident to Naruto that he had been crying. "Are you okay?"

"Was that your question?" Itachi said in an obvious way to get him to the point of this disruption. It wasn't just the words, his tone was defensive.

"No. Um, a few of my friends want to meet up with me and Sasuke to talk but I figured I should ask you if it's okay if we go." Naruto watched him for a minute and Itachi sighed. He scratched his head and thought for a second, weighing options and results from various things.

"Have you arranged anything yet?" Naruto shook his head. "Set it up for eight at the park tonight, all of Black Bird will be going… If Sasuke's up for it. I'm not sure how whatever Orochimaru did to him is going to affect him in the short term. Go check with him."

Itachi looked away and shut the door slowly in Naruto's face. Naruto was a bit surprised but accepted that Itachi needed time to himself. Naruto shrugged as he silently made his way into his boyfriend's room. Sasuke had been sleeping for a half-an-hour and Naruto really didn't want to wake him. He checked the time; it was just going on three-thirty. He knelt down bed level and gently shook Sasuke's shoulder. "Hey, Sasuke…"

"Hn…" Sasuke raised a hand lifting the towel off his eyes. He saw Naruto and smiled in a daze. "What's up?"

"We're going to meet up with Sai at the park at eight if that's okay with you." Sasuke nodded and set the cloth aside. Naruto got up and pulled his phone out and dialed Sai back telling him where and when, and that he didn't make up the time or meeting place. They agreed and Naruto hung up the phone and set it on Sasuke's table. Sasuke motioned him into bed and smiled as Naruto listened to the hand gesture. Naruto lay down next to him and was quickly pulled in. "How's your hot flashes?"

Sasuke was going to argue that they weren't hot flashes, he had a fever, but he didn't care. "Better."

Sasuke raised his hand to Naruto's face and pressed his lips to him. Both boys blushed when they pulled apart to stare at each other. It was than Sasuke closed his eyes and curled up to Naruto's upper chest. Naruto placed a hand on Sasuke head and stroked his hair sensing something was off with him too. "What's wrong?"

"I just feel… I feel like a dumb ass." Sasuke murmured as an excuse. He did feel down on himself, however it wasn't that and he knew it. And than he realized he was lying to Naruto, something he didn't want to do. "My eyes are red. Doesn't that bother you?"

"No, they don't. They're just eyes; we can get you sunglasses, contacts, Visine." Sasuke slapped Naruto's back for the last one and laughed a bit. Naruto just kept petting him and eventually moved to petting his back, the touch lingering just on his skin. Sasuke felt his back shiver at every contact. He opened a red eye to the door to see a red eye looking in than disappear in the dark of the hallway.


	48. Tight shirts are awesome

**Have a happy easter, eat Hasenpfeffer. ;)**

Sasuke grabbed his head while he walked down the stairs, he didn't tip, sway or stumble at all. When Naruto asked Sasuke said he just felt really dehydrated and convinced him to come with him to the kitchen with him just in case. That's what Sasuke said; he was however being clingy and didn't want Naruto out of his sight. Reaching the kitchen Sasuke grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge through the mounds of food. "When we get home after this, we are feasting, _mon petit renard_."

"I still think the fridge would be packed." Naruto said and stuck out his tongue playfully. Sasuke was about to call him out on it but than Itachi silent hovered into the kitchen from upstairs. He quickly walked over to Sasuke and hugged him. He whispered something in French and pulled away patting his head.

"Let's go, Karin, Suigetsu, Jugo and Kisame are waiting outside already." Itachi moved out or the room with a dark cloud of gloom following him. Sasuke looked at Naruto and than looked down at his bare chest and stomach. 'How'd I lose my shirt exactly…?' He looked to Naruto who just stared like a lost puppy at him, his head was even a little tilted. Sasuke just smiled and began to walk towards the stairs when Naruto caught him before he fell. "I can't go like this, I need a shirt…"

"I'll go get one for you; I'll be back in a second." Naruto said and ran upstairs three steps at a time. Sasuke leaned against the refrigerator and opened the bottle of water. It stung like ice going down, sickles stabbing his esophagus. Sasuke coughed a bit but managed to keep it down. He closed the bottle and held it to his forehead. Naruto came downstairs with a fresh tank from Sasuke's drawer. He had something else to.

"Naruto, what he Hell…" Sasuke said taking the shirt. Naruto had the gun, he did show it was empty but had six shiny bullets in his hand. Sasuke shook his head and coughed in his hand. He caught his breath and looked disapprovingly at them. "I think what Itachi and Kisame are carrying will be enough, I mean, two guns should be enough."

"Karin and Suigetsu were chased by two of Madara's people today. It's for safety, just in case." Naruto said putting the bullets inside it. He handed it to Sasuke who nodded and shoved it in the back of his jeans. Sasuke nodded and put the white tank-top on and looked at it. It was way too tight. Sasuke looked at Naruto who smiled, he even bit his lip starring at his lover.

"Jeez, are we meeting them so you can go 'look at my boyfriend's abs?' Showing me off much?" Naruto just smiled. "Seriously? That was the idea?"

"Well, it looked a little small, but that's nice. Plus now you can show off your tattoo." Naruto giggled a bit as Sasuke took his hand and they made their way out onto the street. Sasuke nodded to everyone while everyone just looked at his tee-shirt. Jugo thought Sasuke didn't know so he told him. "Sasuke, that shirt's very revealing."

"Blame Naruto, he's making me wear it. Come on, let's go." Sasuke muttered and they made their way down the street and onto a main road. As they walked they were getting starred at. This was first because they were in a group of seven and could be considered a gang, and technically they were. Secondly Kisame and Jugo were huge and unusually tall. Lastly it was Sasuke and Naruto; both in the fact Sasuke's every muscle was displayed and they were holding hands.

After a twenty minute walk they arrived in the park. The park was just a little off campus and was always swarmed with college students. As they walked through the dense green grass towards the center tiered fountain they were interrupted by yelling. "TEACH! Teach!"

Several students stood up in a circle and waved as Sasuke. Sasuke smiled and waved back at the students who kept yelling at them. "Sorry to hear about your douche-bag of an uncle! At least you can repaint the mansion! And get rid of the cats!"

"Thanks guys!" Sasuke said and they went back to their own business. Sasuke looked at Itachi who was glaring at him. Sasuke observed the twitch in his brother's eye before he understood why the look was questioning. "Oh, I helped Sasori teach and subbed for him a couple times, they call me teach for it."

"So that time I saw you in front of his class I wasn't delusional. Well that's good news." Kisame said reassuringly to himself. He grinned and Itachi just turned away rolling the red eyes in their sockets. They all stopped at the fountain. Sasuke sat down on the stone wall edge and finished off his water.

A few minutes in there was a loud whistle and Sai, leading Tenten, Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji walked over, Sai was the only who didn't flinch when they saw the group of former villains with them. They moved in Ino immediately rushing Karin. They two girls broke off towards the nearest tree and began yakking away about everything they could think of.

Chouji approached Naruto and sighed. "Sorry… I was being a bit of a bigot, guess I'm not evolving with the times. But, you've always been a friend and I shouldn't question love… or Ino will beat me up again. Forgive me?"

"It's cool, we all have our own beliefs, just don't assault people with them, okay?" Naruto sighed and held out his hand. He and Chouji shook hands smiling. He backed off and Sai stepped up handing Sasuke a piece of paper. "Neji told me to give it to you; it's out of the evening paper."

"Madara being an ass again?" Sasuke looked at the paper for a minute before giving a sharp aggressive whistle. He held up the paper to Itachi who took and skimmed it. Itachi laughed silently with a huge as grin and handed it back. "You're a jackass, _mon frère. _You're not going to let me use the money for a trip to Cancun are you?"

"Hell no." Itachi said and handed the paper to Naruto. Itachi patted Sasuke on the head messing up his perfect hair and walked away towards Kisame. "I'm in charge of his money until he's 18. Madara signed over all his assets to Sasuke this afternoon, so he has millions he can't touch."

"Ouch." Kisame said loudly looking at the younger Uchiha. Sasuke stuck out his tongue. Itachi had no idea he had Madara's credit card, he had access to a little bit of the funds behind his brother's back.

"Sai… you ruined my day." Sasuke said pouting. "Just kidding. So what's up?"

"Shino's trying to start a gay war. It's stupid and I want to punch him in the face. I don't know why he's being such a dick about everything." Shikamaru grumbled from behind Sai. Tenten sighed and than saw someone approaching. "Oh great… Naruto, Sakura's coming. Look."

Naruto turned his head and quickly excused himself from Sasuke who followed his fox with stern eyes. Naruto stopped a foot or two away from her and smiled slightly. "Hey."

"Hey." Sakura said as she stopped. She looked up at his face and crossed her arms tightly. She took a second tapping her boot on the ground to think of something, anything to say to him. "I see you got Sasuke back alright."

"Yea. I really owe it all to you." She nodded, her pink hair moving with her head. She sighed and turned to walk away but Naruto grabbed her by the shoulder. "Sakura… don't be upset by this please, don't."

Sakura looked over to the group by the fountain. They were all busy in talking, except Sasuke who had his eyes focused on them. He saw Sakura looking and waved with a playful smile challenging her to start something. She growled and than turned to Naruto acknowledging part of what he saw. "He's a jackass, but I guess you know that already. I can understand how you're attracted to him, with him wearing that huge sweater all the time, you wouldn't expect him to look like that."

"Yea, I made him wear it; I didn't know it was going to be that tight on him though." Naruto said looking over and blushing. He turned back to Sakura grinning. "Kind of glad it was."

"Well… I have to get going before Shino wanders over here. We're having a picnic over by the gazebos. Don't wander over there." She advised lowly.

"So… wait. Are you two going out now?" Naruto asked and Sakura nodded smiling. "He's really nice to me… and before you ask, we haven't talked about you at all, or even the issue."

"Cool, now you just have to get him over the fact your best friend is gay. I am still your best friend right?" Naruto asked tilting his head like a small, shagged pup. Sakura smiled and nodded. "Sweet, here's Sasuke's number, I'm out of minutes."

Naruto grabbed one of her feet and took off her shoe. To this Sasuke stood up and walked over to see his number on the bottom of her foot. He queried it and Naruto told him he was out of minutes as he shoved her shoe back on. "Oh, right. So, no hard feelings?"

Sasuke stuck out his hand with a simple no emotion smile. Sakura shook it and left along the path she came so Shino wouldn't come looking for her. Sasuke grabbed Naruto's hand and quickly lead him back to the safety of the group. Sasuke raised his hand quickly to his mouth and coughed. "Are you getting sick?"

"Getting? I am, duh." Sasuke muttered. They sat back down for Sai and Shikamaru to go on about things at school. Tenten had found a friend in Jugo who was helping her identify the various birds around them. Ino and Chouji were busy trying to figure out if Karin being dominatrix in her and Suigetsu's relationship was healthy. They didn't like the answer.

"Hey." Itachi said walking over to his brother. He messed up his hair more. "The walking ATM is going to go home. I'll catch you there."

"Sasuke, you should go to since your not feeling well." Naruto suggested. Sasuke looked at him for a second. "What? You're running a fever."

"You have to go with me than." Sasuke said and clamped his other hand on top of his possessively.

"Clingy much." Shikamaru picked. Sasuke gave him a raspberry and grinned.

"You should have seen me after I was really sick. I was terrible than." Sasuke said and stood up with Naruto.

"Wouldn't let me get away…" Naruto said and poked him in the side hard. Sasuke flinched. "So, see you guys in school?"

"Yea, well, we were going to catch the nine o' clock movie anyway. Ino, Chouji, Tenten, let's get going." Shikamaru said to the rest of his group. They all nodded and quickly said their goodbyes leaving in a tight, noisy pack that barely fit on the pavement.

Sasuke looked to the Black Birds who than quickly moved in a circle. "Naruto and I were going to head home with Itachi, what are you guys doing?"

"There's Frisbee up in the tree, I was going to climb and get it. Were gonna hang until sundown." Suigetsu said pointing to the large oak Karin had been under. "We'll bring it home with us so we can have hall-bee."

"I hate hall-bee." Jugo muttered. He looked to Suigetsu "I'm always the first one to get hit… Always."

"Don't worry, you'll shrink in your seventies." Suigetsu reassured as he they dashed off to the tree. Suigetsu pulled two knives and used them to scale the tree with ease. Sasuke shook his head and began walking pulling Naruto along. "Hall-bee is where we divide into teams and go to the opposite ends of the hall. We toss the Frisbee back and forth, if you get hit you're out, and if you don't catch it you have to drop a member of your team."

"Oh… How's that work if you throw crooked?" Naruto asked Sasuke tilted his head towards Itachi. "You don't worry about that. He never throws it straight, mainly because he's mean. Ricochets it off the wall, ceiling and it lands on the floor behind you. It's cheating."

"It's legal." Itachi corrected quickly looking at his little brother. He pointed a finger in Sasuke's face with authority and wisedom. "The rules are it has to make it to the other team and has to stay in the hall. I have always followed those two rules."

"But it's cheating, you're tossing it out of reach for people shorter than Jugo and Kisame. That's completely absurd." Sasuke stuck to his guns and tossed his head up high. "I'm just going to assume I win, and call that good."

"If you say so." Itachi said as they exited the park. They looked up to the blue and yellow sky above; night was coming within an hour. Itachi sighed and smiled calmly at the sight of the clouds drifting over a pallet of soothing hues. "I can't wait to see what the sky in Austraila looks like, especially in the outback where there're no lights at night."

"You're still going? Than who's going to baby-sit me?" Sasuke picked. Itachi pointed to Naruto. Sasuke followed his finger for a second in disbelief. He suddenly smiled and returned his gaze to Itachi. "So you're going to have my boyfriend be my watcher. Wow, so I'm finally old enough to be on my own for once?"

"Not exactly. You've really got nothing to run from now since Orochimaru's already gotten a hold of you." Itachi said and sighed looking down the street Jugo's tattoo parlor was on, the street Orochimaru's house was on. Only Sasuke grasped the importance of this, Naruto just hung back silent. "I'm going to take off; I've got something to pick up. Head straight home, do you…"

"I understand, _mon frère._" Sasuke said and patted Itachi on the shoulder. Sasuke smiled and lead Naruto down the road grinning warmly. He let Itachi keep walking for a few minutes. This was enough time for the two to crowd behind a building. Sasuke stopped and shushed Naruto. He looked around the corner and saw Itachi walking quickly down the road. "I think he's going to Orochimaru's. Orochimaru's house is on the end of this street, and I know he doesn't shop at any of the store here."

"Than, we're following him there?" Naruto asked. Sasuke nodded slowly and watched as his older brother disappeared into the darkening blue sky. Sasuke sighed and watched the empty space for a minute. "Hey Sasuke…" Sasuke looked at him quickly. "You've got a bit of blood coming from your nose."

The young Uchiha reeled back for a minute touching right under his nose. He pulled his hand back and moaned as he saw a pit of blood. Sasuke quickly was in sync with Naruto's thoughts. He quickly wiped the blood off on his wrist and prayed it stopped with that little drizzle. He grabbed Naruto's hand and smiled as if it were nothing. "I'm fine to follow him, it's probably just to do with the fact I think Orochimaru broke my nose, I'm pretty sure they just dumped me on the sidewalk. Let's go."


	49. So Could I

"Nagato says it's progressive." Sasori said hanging up the phone on Nagato who had ousted the news. Sasori cast his stare to Deidara on the couch; he had finally gone to his dorm room and emptied it out. He sat there in a tee shirt and jeans staring at Sasori as he brushed his long hair. Deidara just shrugged not understanding. Sasori sighed and slowly began to tell him what it meant. Deidara's eyes grew wide. "Go find Sasuke, and do it quickly. Do you understand?"

"Yea. Give me the keys." Deidara said jumping up and holding out his hands. Sasori just shook his head. "Come on, I thought this was an emergency."

"I have to go prepare a bed for Sasuke, you're young. Run around and look for him." Sasori said and quickly pointed to the door. Deidara sighed and began to run out towards the general direction of Black Bird.

He pulled his phone out and dialed Kisame beginning to lose his breath. The shark man answered with "Why are you out of breath?"

"I'm running, where's Sasuke? It's super important." Deidara said and was told Sasuke left the park five minutes ago with Itachi and Naruto heading towards home. "Um, right, I should intersect them, thanks."

Deidara hung up the phone and kept running straight. He hit the street and saw Sasuke and Naruto running in front of him. They stopped dead on the sidewalk and hid behind a building. Deidara saw Itachi drift off farther down the street and soon understood that they were following him. Silently he moved over and tapped Sasuke on the shoulder. "I really need to talk to you."

"I don't have time. Leave me a voice mail." Sasuke hissed at him; he waved for Naruto to follow as they moved off following Itachi's footsteps to the next block. The ravened haired boy walked towards the street and held off until Itachi was out of sight again. "His pace makes him hard to follow."

"Yea, Itachi was always sneaky." Deidara commented from behind the two. The couple looked at him with mild frustration. Deidara looked back, "It's really important, Sasori was told by…"

"Gossip later!" Naruto gritted his teeth but still commanded the sentence. Naruto clamped a hand over Deidara's mouth. "Can't you see that were trying to follow him… Quietly."

"Itachi's going to Orochimaru's. We don't want to get caught or fall too behind him. Let's go." Sasuke said and quickly moved across the street and he hit the residential district. The houses here were all new and practically the same until you hit the large house that was white with purple shutters. He stopped and waved for Naruto to follow. Uzumaki removed his hand and made the silent motion before jogging across the street.

When across Deidara just casually walked over and watched as Sasuke and Naruto observed Itachi standing on Orochimaru's porch knocking on the door. Deidara didn't know if they noticed, but it seemed unconsciously Sasuke reached for Naruto's hand for support.

After a second Kabuto answered the door and recognized his face from the Science Building. Kabuto tried to shut the door. Itachi kept it open and forced it all the way tossing Kabuto on his back. Itachi walked in and slammed the door behind him causing it to bounce back open from the sheer force. As Kabuto crawled on his back away Itachi grabbed him by the throat and looked at him with his hated red eyes. "Where's Orochimaru?"

"I'm right here." Said the snake-ish man slithering out from a door way. Itachi let go of Kabuto and walked over to him. "It's good to see you again, though how rude of you to break my door. You know I expect better of you, Itachi."

"I want to talk with you, privately." Itachi said looking down at Kabuto. His assistant gave a worried look. "I already know I can't beat you and you are surely aware of this so I'm no threat to you. I just want to talk."

"Why don't you come into the parlor? Kabuto go make up some Honey tea, if I remember correctly, it is your favorite." Itachi nodded and followed Orochimaru out of the hall leaving Kabuto to sit up cursing both of them. It was than his glasses picked up movement at the door. Kabuto pulled a knife from his sleeve only to be met with the barrel of Zetsu's old gun. Sasuke took two steps in and smiled. "That's cheating Sasuke."

"I just want to listen in on them… Kabuto, was it? I have no quarrel with you." Sasuke pulled the gun back with hands up and put it away. Naruto walked up behind him with Deidara in tow. Cautious Kabuto put away his knife and sighed. "Just want to listen in."

"Come with me than." Kabuto said and lead them into the adjoining room and knelt down next to the wooden paneling. "From here on out no talking. Keep your breathing quiet as well, do you understand?"

They all nodded and watched as Kabuto removed a panel with ease and pulled away the insulation, everything was heard by that. Sasuke smiled. '_Not even he trusts Orochimaru_.' Sasuke sat down by the opening and watched as Kabuto silently exited to presumably go make the tea. Naruto sat down on the floor next to him and they automatically grabbed hands. They both closed their eyes and listened. Deidara was a little more wary and sat across from the boor with the hilt of his gun in his hand. '_Great, supposed to be dragging the kid to the hospital and here we are in the enemy's house. Christ._'

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

"It's very unusual for you to just come see me. Or have you figured out that I'm going to win." Orochimaru asked sitting foreword, his long finger nails dipping into the leather on the front of the arm rests. Itachi sat still starring at him trained to be without emotion. "Silent?"

"Thinking…" He mouthed quietly and than turned his head towards the fire for a while listening to the logs as they crackled and hissed in the flames dancing on them. "I do owe you; I would have died on several occasions if you haven't altered me, so I do owe that to you."

Orochimaru sat back his hands releasing and smiled. He even laughed a bit as he watched Itachi's face warm up to him a bit. "See, I am a good person."

"I also have to thank you for doing that. I felt Madara would have taken Sasuke and pulled me from the equation had I not told on you and gained some credibility in his eyes." Itachi's grin grew wide as he crossed one leg over the other and observed the faltering face of the old snake. Itachi sighed and got back to his topic. "You take your revenge on innocents; my brother never did anything to you."

"I took my revenge on you!" Orochimaru lurched foreword and shoved a finger in his face. "You needed to suffer and you did, didn't you? Didn't you?"

"Sasuke didn't do anything! He's just a kid! Hell, he still doesn't see the importance of a Diploma over a GED!" Itachi shouted back smacking Orochimaru's hand out of his face. Itachi gave him a challenging look to which he couldn't match. It was the confident stare of a sacrificial lamb, one who didn't care if he died as long as the cause went on. Orochimaru sat back and continued on cordially.

"Really, maybe you should tell him. I have a feeling you're going to be talking a lot, not telling him the truth. Tsk, tsk, Itachi. I bet baby brother didn't like it." He said cocking his head to one side. Itachi calmed down and sat back relaxed. "You still haven't told him that the reason I was experimenting on you was because you were my apprentice and that was the deal. But you broke that deal."

"Being a guinea pig for your experiments was not part of the deal." Itachi corrected him wagging a finger. "The deal was you would tell me what was going on with Madara in exchange I would help you in the lab and suggest that Madara would get things for you. That was the deal. You broke the deal."

Orochimaru didn't retort he just sat their silently with his hand clasped together. A knock interrupted his uneasy silence. "Come in. Ah, Kabuto, it's about time."

"Sorry, I had to find a new kettle, the one with the flowers on it broke." Kabuto said wheeling in a tray between them with two empty cups and a warm, full grey kettle.

"You're kidding, that was my favorite." Orochimaru said looking disappointed. Itachi just shook his head and poured his own tea sitting back and sipping on it. Orochimaru sighed and waved his assistant off. "At least you know I won't poison you, your brother sniffed it like he knew what he was doing. So, Itachi, back to me getting my revenge on you. Yes, I did, it was an attack on everything you have. Well all you have is that shitty dump of a boarding house and your brother; one was already taken care of so I chose the latter."

"You're despicable." He said calmly and took a sip. Orochimaru was starting to be bothered by the Uchiha's way of going completely calm; it was just as Sasuke had acted. "Is there a cure?"

"Cure, he has no disease I assure you. You mean a serum to reverse engineer? No, sorry, fresh out I'm afraid, you see, only 9 has that and well, he's gone for the time being. Some drinking bringe with a lot of whores I imagine." Orochimaru finally poured his tea and sat back. "So, how is your brother?"

"He's up and about with no thanks to you, we just left the park. He did sleep straight from when he arrived to about an hour ago."

Orochimaru smiled and began thinking. He had been with Itachi a whole year and had come to understand the boy. As far as he was concerned, he still had a way of breaking Itachi Uchiha. "Sasuke did mention that you had warned him to avoid me, he didn't listen. Maybe you should be more open with your brother; you two have a lot in common. Have you ever thought to tell him the truth about you? Tell him that you're…"

"Shut up. I never should have told you that. There's a reason and you know that." Itachi said quickly the calmness replaced by a steadily growing agitation. The cup began to shake in his hand and it was than he decided her could lose a tea cup for his own satisfaction.

"Ah, yes, you're cruel father who tried to abandon you for what you are. Pity you two never got along, I think you're turning out quite like him. Just bursting into people's lives, telling them what's right and wrong." Orochimaru smiled as he shouted the words.

"SHUT UP!" The cup crushed in Itachi's hand, the hot tea spilling onto the floor. He shut his eyes tightly with a cringe on his face. He took a deep breath through his nose and spoke very darkly. "I am not like my father!"

"Nothing to be mad at, it's very common for boys to grow up to be like their parents even when they don't want to be. You saw how coldly he treated you and you vowed never to treat anyone like that, and yet you do so they don't get close to you and find out the truth to you. It's very hypocritical of you, of course, most Uchiha are like that. Cold to the people they want to be warm to. It's your fate I would say." Orochimaru said sitting on the edge of Itachi's chair and petting his hair. He didn't like it but Itachi knew that Orochimaru understood him and he hated himself for ever letting him in like that. Sans thinking he leaned his head against Orochimaru and let himself be coddled for a minute. '_Who knows you better than your enemy_?' "I'm no psychologist, but really why don't you talk to Sasuke about it. He may be able to help you. I know you're father looked down on it but being bisexual is nothing to be angry at. Oh you kissed a boy when you were fourteen. At fourteen I was kidnapping and dismembering both genders."

"How can you compare those two things? They're on a completely different level." Itachi asked looking up at him. Orochimaru just shrugged and kept stroking the Uchiha's head.

"I'm not trying to compare, it is just that I've done worse, you need to get over yourself. Do you know why you're always so stressed, it's because you need to get laid." Both broke down laughing. Orochimaru let go of him and walked back over to grab his tea. "What it's true, you've never gotten any, ever. It will seriously take away the stress. I'll go knock out Kabuto for you."

"Why am I still talking to you?" Itachi asked himself rhetorically. It was than Orochimaru glared at him. "What?"

"Oh come on, you and I both know why you're still here." He said taking his seat. Orochimaru smiled at Itachi and set his tea in his lap sighing with a happy overtone. "I'm the only person you have left to talk to who knows the whole you, I know all your dark secrets, all your aspirations, your everything. Admit it; you're enjoying having someone to talk to."

"I am but…" There was the sudden sound of an intense cough. Both stopped and stood silently.

"Who's there?" Orochimaru called and he and Itachi quickly proceeded out of the room into the adjoining one to see Deidara, Naruto and Sasuke about to sneak out.

"Shit." Deidara said and felt his gun in his pocket. '_There's no way to beat him if he gets angry enough to attack. We're completely out of our league.'_

"Um, hi." Sasuke said stepping in front of Naruto. Both Orochimaru and Itachi crossed their arms at him. Sasuke needed something, anything to get him out of this. He went with the first excuse that popped into his head. "We were just leaving, funny story on how we got here though. We were on our way…"

"I told you two to go home!" Itachi said loudly looking down at him as Sasuke slouched farther into his shoulders. Itachi's glare pierced through any lie his younger brother could toss at him. Sasuke bit the inside of his lip and waited for the courage to say something. He found it when Naruto let out a little worried noise, at that Sasuke went back to being the fearless leader of Black Bird.

"Wait, what the fuck? You're yelling at me? Me!? I did the exact same shit and you're giving me Hell about it? I thought you would be in danger! I was concerned for my older brother! Considering what happened I thought you would get shot in the head, back snapped in two. Well I'm sorry I interrupted your tea time!" He said stepping foreword. He quickly kept walking and forced Itachi into the hall with his back against the wall. Sasuke grabbed his shirt collar and pointed angrily back at Orochimaru. "I'm sorry okay, I shouldn't follow you because unlike you I'm obviously not supposed to do stupid and reckless shit! Why the Hell are you friends with him? What part of he nearly killed me escaped you in there? I guess it's all out the window when they bring back the past. What the fuck, Itachi?"

"I'm not friends with him…" Itachi muttered quietly. He looked at Orochimaru and to Sasuke. "Orochimaru was my mentor starting after Mom and Dad died. He taught me, took care of me, and helped me through their deaths when Madara wanted nothing to do with me. It's something that's always going to be there, that at one point in time; he wasn't a twisted genocidal killer. He wasn't my enemy."

"Old enemies have a tendency to become good company." Orochimaru noted and set a hand on Sasuke shoulder pulling him down off his brother. Sasuke looked at them and than headed out the door with Naruto following behind and Deidara charging after yelling that he still had something to tell Sasuke. Orochimaru pulled out a card with his number on it. "We're even now, now and forever. If you ever want to talk, I'm pretty sure I can forget what goes on during our conversations."

"So could I." Itachi whispered taking the card and shoving it away.


	50. Drinkin' Buddy

Sasuke wasn't enraged or even disgusted. He was merely upset that Itachi could and would do that. The feeling settled into his stomach and made him uneasy. It was a deep feeling like his brother hadn't cared. Even more so he felt saddened that his brother was talking to Orochimaru about him. Sit there and joke and speak as if Orochimaru was some friend of their family. It made his blood boil in a bad way. Sasuke stomped along the sidewalks try to hide the fact he wanted to cry and throw a fit. Naruto was at his side and petted his back soothingly trying to get him to calm down even a little.n irratation,im!" "I can't believe him… He would just sit there evenly discussing the time of day."

Following them were sneaker steps on the pavement and not the ones belonging to Deidara who trailed them. Itachi pushed past the lawyer grabbing Sasuke's shoulder and stopping him. "Sasuke wait. I want to talk to you."

"Well I don't want to talk to you. You know exactly what that bastard did to me! You just fucking sat there!" Sasuke said ripping away from him. He was going to keep yelling but had to pull in a hand to cough on. Itachi caught him back by the shoulder and gave him stability until his fit was over.

Deidara suddenly remember his purpose among the drama and tried to interject. "Guys, Sasori…" He was quickly cut off by Itachi and lowered his facial expression sighing. "God damn it."

"What part of I can't beat him don't you get? What would you have me do than? Madara's in jail, he doesn't have the serum and 9 is more likely to kill us on sight that talk to us, let alone give us an antidote." Itachi mused softly. He stroked a lock out of Sasuke's face and glared at his baby brother's blood red eyes. "Don't you ever think that I am not putting you first because you are wrong. I tried, I asked, he can't reverse it. I'm so sorry, this is all my fault."

"Can I get a word in?" Deidara asked but he was ignored by both Uchiha, the ones he needed to talk to. He raised a finger and tried again but got nothing in return. His head dropped and so did his attitude. "This is so shitty…"

"Try yelling, it may help more." Naruto said patting him on the shoulder. He than shoved him foreword a bit more into a visible area. Uzumaki gave him a thumbs up and nodded. "Being loud works trust me."

"Guys!" Deidara's voice echoed through the empty street and had its intended effect. The Uchihas stopped their melodramatic whisperings and turned to look at Deidara like he was interrupting something important with two sets of slightly pissed off eyes. "Sasori sent me; he said that Sasuke's condition is progressive."

"Progressive?" Itachi knew exactly what Deidara meant, he didn't know that Sasuke did as well and pulled Deidara aside by his shirt collar. "You mean it's not done yet?"

"According to him, it's barely even started. We have to get back; Sasori's making a bed at the old medical building. He thinks Sasuke's going to get way worse." Deidara muttered back. Itachi sighed and dropped Deidara's shirt turning away. Itachi looked over at Sasuke who nodded.

"I know what it means. Hey, it's okay. Let's go than." Sasuke said with a smile on his face. 'Well… If I die… Itachi will get a Corvette.' Sasuke tried to think of a positive to match his fading grin but couldn't as Itachi didn't like Corvettes. "Naruto, go ahead with Deidara, I guess I want to talk with Itachi."

Naruto nodded and waited for Deidara to get some twenty feet ahead before he cast a smile at Sasuke and took off after the future lawyer. Itachi sulked in next to Sasuke as they began walking. Both had their heads down not looking at the other and hands clenched in their pockets. For a while they observed their shoes scoffing the pavements as they shuffled after the blondes. Itachi gave in the smiled to himself. "So? What am I being yelled at about now?"

"It wasn't Deidara's fault; you didn't need to do that to your drinking buddy." Itachi quickly moved to protest but Sasuke made a mocking noise until he stopped. "Shut up, you're arguments invalid. He's the only guy you've ever actually drank with, and don't deny it; I could smell it on both your breaths. I still can a bit. I'm only saying that it's good to make new friends. I think Kisame's becoming a bad influence, you sit around whining all day now."

"I do not." Sasuke caught him with a finger expertly placed in his face right between the eyes. Itachi sighed. "Alright fine, I have relaxed maybe a little too much. I don't really get along with Deidara though, we have nothing in common besides drinking."

"Long hair… Fly off the handle easily… Hate Madara. The last one's all you really need at a bar isn't it?" Sasuke asked him. Itachi rubbed his neck making some weird murmuring noise. "Best part is you hate each other, you can get drunk and get in a fist fight with him and totally dominate. Then you can keep record and totally wave it in his face every chance you get."

"Are you seriously suggesting that? Get drunk just to fight? I can do it anyway, all I have to do is call him a girl and he's ready to shoot." Itachi said watching Deidara ahead of them having a vivid conversation with Naruto. "That would be funny though. Walk in a bar and have people play guess the gender, it's a way to make money if I needed it."

"So, are you actually Bi?" Itachi just hummed a yes in a depressing manner and called it a good enough response. Sasuke however was a little confused about this revelation and proceeded to tell him so. "Why the Hell wouldn't you tell your gay little brother? You know when I told you that _is_ kind of something you share in response, like… You know. You just come out and say it after I told you."

"I didn't think it would improve anything, especially after I was kicked out by Dad. Would it have helped?" Itachi asked seriously looking at his brother. Sasuke just shrugged. The young Uchiha looked up at his brother and with a confused look nodded his head. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you then. If I knew it would have helped, I would have told you right away."

"Yea, I would have helped a lot actually. Up until I was fourteen I thought I was broken or something. You were supportive however." Sasuke raised his hand yet again and coughed aggressively into it. Itachi tried to smile and wrapped an arm around him waiting for Sasuke to stop. When he did Sasuke spit onto the sidewalk and ushered them away knowing he tasted blood in his saliva; he didn't want Itachi to see it. "That's getting annoying. I guess I'm not that angry at you after all."

"You're a hormonal teenager." Itachi said picking on his brother. He quickly poked him in the middle of the forehead playfully and smiled. "Don't worry about it. You'll be okay someday, when you get over everything."

"Hopefully not everything, than I might turn out boring like you." Sasuke retorted and held his head up high ignoring the fact that his forehead had begun hurting. He staved off the temptation to rub it for a few seconds before giving in. It hurt. "I'm back to hating you."

"You better not be radioactive, it was bad enough when you were sick." Itachi quickly prodded his brother in the forehead provoking an argument.

"Better than being celibate. Maybe Orochimaru was right; maybe you do need to get laid." Itachi grabbed Sauske around the neck and began to mess up his hair. "It's like you're angry about being a damn virgin. I know, why don't you just get Deidara drunk…"

"Shut your face, Sasuke." Itachi said rubbing harder. Sasuke let out an 'ow' and began to wrestle with Itachi's hand but was losing. "Don't talk about things you don't know about. Especially since he's one of those people you love to hate."

"You used the word 'love.' Are you mad because I'm right?" Itachi went full force on his head. The force on his scalp caused Sasuke to start whining until his big brother stopped to check on him. Sasuke just could help but keep talking. "I'm right aren't I?"

Itachi glare at Sasuke for a second. His arm wasn't budging around the young Uchiha's neck. "No."

"It was just a joke, it's not like he'd stick explosive up his ass would he?" Sasuke questioned and than thought about it. He gave a light 'een…' and sighed. "So he might, which would be funny because technically he'd be blowing you."

"Sasuke… Oh my God. I wish I had brought duct tape." Itachi said trying to stop from laughing. Itachi turned away for a minute before looking back at Sasuke who was beaming with a giant smile. "You seriously need to stop it, it's not funny."

"No it isn't, he'd have explosive diarrhea for a week." Sasuke said and Itachi finally gave. His little brother joined him as they stumbled to move about in the fit of laughter.. questioned and than thought about it. He gave a light '

---------(black bird)---------

"So I have a question." Deidara said as Naruto caught up to him. Naruto looked over to him and nodded. Deidara opened his mouth, thought for a second and nearly whispered: "Why did you choose guys over girls?"

"Never thought about it that way. I always just thought of it as being with Sasuke. There's nothing hugely important about whatever's down there, it's the person for me." Naruto shrugged and thought more about it. "That and I was kind of dragged into a relationship with Sasuke. Three A.M. and in pain kind of makes your head go all crazy. I'm kind of glad it did, or I wouldn't be here now with him. I can honestly say I never expected it. I don't think about that much however, I'm just super worried about him."

Deidara just sighed and nodded. "Yea, poor kid. It sounds like to what Itachi went through Sasuke's been having it super easy. I'm sure Sasori can fix him; he's pretty amazing at what he does. You should see all the things he just automatically knows; like big words."

"Yea, Sasuke knows a lot of big words too." Naruto recalled his story he had turned into Kakashi. He smiled and looked behind at Sasuke and Itachi who were already back to their brotherly arguing. Naruto shook his head and watched his feet as the street lights came on. "Jiraiya, he's my guardian, he knows a bunch of big words too."

Deidara smiled and laughed. "Yea, I've read all his books, actually. I'm a fan even though it sounds weird. It's like written porn."

"It is all porn, it is soft-core porn with dialogue in it. I keep telling him that and he doesn't believe me." Naruto said and scratched the back of his head checking on Sasuke, he was still doing fine. Naruto's head jolted. "Hey, I can get you an early copy of his new book next time I see him."

"Really?" Deidara asked excitedly. Naruto nodded, the blond hair flailing. "That would be super awesome."

"That sounded so gay. I'm just letting you know." Naruto smiled picking fun at Deidara. The law student scowled and stuck out his tongue which Naruto just ignored. "The book, it's a little pedophilic. He says it is set in a time when it was alright but I don't believe him. It still was a little uncomfortable."

"Ah, yea, suppose it would be… Must still be good."

"Yea, but like I'd never tell him that. Jiraiya's one of those motivated by discouragement. Keeps him going." Naruto muttered and bit his lip looking back at Sasuke. Deidara caught notice and assured him that Sasuke was fine. "I know, can't hurt to kept checking up on him though. He's full of surprises."

"Can I ask you another question? Why are they mean to me?" Deidara asked honestly, he pointed a finger over his shoulder at the Uchiha brothers and waited for a response.

Naruto just looked at him with a confused expression trying to figure out where Deidara would get that from. "What are you talking about, they're assertive and sometimes violent, but not mean."

"What is he blathering on about?" Sasuke yelled up to them from the headlock Itachi had him in. Sasuke quickly escaped it and pointed a finger in his brother's face threatening retaliation which only made Itachi laugh harder.

"That, right there, he's being mean to me!" Deidara said pointing to him. Sasuke started to say 'blow it out your ass' but found he couldn't finish. Sasuke began coughing in the middle of the sentence and found he couldn't stop.

"Sasuke!" Itachi grasped Sasuke around his shoulders to keep him standing. Sasuke began coughing harder and Itachi's vice grip on his_ frère_ wasn't enough. Sasuke lurched and broke free. "Naruto, help me with him!"

"I'll call Sasori and see if he's done yet." Deidara said whipping out his phone. Naruto and Itachi helped Sasuke to his feet only to have to hold him still. Sasuke coughed a few more times and calmed down watching Deidara intently. Deidara caught Sasori's voice mail and began muttering into the phone. "Hope that bed's finished soon, he's getting worse."

Sasuke pushed his brother off swearing he was alright. After some convincing words Itachi let him walk with Naruto who wrapped an arm around his back just in case. "Come on, Sasuke. Let's get you home."

"Or to cake." Sasuke offered looking over at Naruto. He made a pathetic look which only made him appear worse. Naruto shook his head. "Fine, I'll just get cake later."

"We've got to get you home, it's more important, O-kay?" Naruto asked, reluctant at this Sasuke nodded and found Naruto leaned up to kiss him on the forehead. Sasuke began smiling and they kept walking with Itachi behind them just smiling. Deidara was in front leaving more and more voice messages on Sasori's phone.

--------(blAck bIrd)--------

Shizune had very specific instructions from Tsunade about Sasori: whenever he's on campus, observe him and don't let him catch you. Shizune had stalked Sasori to the old medical building. It had been condemned sixteen years ago, him sneaking into it with a large bag that looked heavily weighted down was suspicious. Shizune, after Sasori had been gone inside for a while, trekked carefully inside and peeked her head around the corner to see Sasori open a room and quickly rush in.

Shizune took one step after another hearing rustling in the room. She looked in and saw Sasori had cleared off a bed and was putting sheets on it. His phone began ringing and he ignored it as he pulled out a medical stand from a closet. It went silent for a second before the ringing started again.

"Stop ringing, I'm busy right now." Sasori hissed at his phone. Shizune was slightly confused and quickly left. She exited the building and quickly ran across the field to the Literature building.

Shizune walked in and knocked on Jiraiya's office door. She waited for a minute before Jiraiya opened the door to find just him and Tsunade eating take-out Chinese food. He held the door open more and Shizune walked in hearing it slam behind her. "Can you please tell Tsunade this is still my office?"

"I told you, it's just going to be three more months." Tsunade growled as Jiraiya sat down and just kept quiet. "Shizune, what is it?"

"I was trailing Sasori as you asked. He's in the old Medical building in a room. He's setting up a bed and equipment like he's going to be having someone stay there." Shizune said strongly. "It looks like he brought a lot of his own equipment as well, he went in with a bag and I left when he was making the bed."

"Hm…" Tsunade said and began chewing on her thumb nail. She sighed leaving her thumb be. "We'll keep watch over the building from here; it's visible from the window. Jiraiya, can you keep watch?"

"Why would I keep…" Tsunade leaned foreword in the desks chair, her boobs draping on the table so he could see the curvature through her shirt. She then made a pleading expression he got to after a minute. "Yeah, I can do that."

"Thank you." Tsunade chimed as she pulled away the desk and covered herself up. She quickly turned to Shizune and smiled. "Works every time. So, could you make any conclusions about it?"

"No, but his phone kept ringing. He ignored it saying he was busy. I think whomever he's prepping the bed for, it's urgent."

"Right. We'll keep an eye out." Tsunade nodded to her and began back at her meal. Shizune left quietly and walked out the building and watched as Sasori left the old medical building and went to his car to grab more equipment. 'Should I be worried for someone?'


	51. AND!

"So, wait. Let me get this straight…" Suigetsu was not comprehending what they were saying. He was trying to take it in without over frying his brain but it was too shocking to understand. He crossed his arms and looked over at Sasuke whom they had pulled the red bed out for. Sasuke looked at him like he was crazy which Suigetsu had probably become for a minute. "You went for cake without me. Oh, you bastard. You know how much I like cake."

"It was a date get over it Suigetsu." Sasuke said and turned his head to look at Naruto who was sitting on the side of the bed. He stroked his hand with a finger getting his attention as their eyes connected for a warm minute. The cover Itachi had planned was working; all they had to do was keep up the act. "Would you really want to sit there and watch me make out with Naruto?"

"I would." Karin said happily gripping her hands in her lap. She sat smiling and eyeing them from the blue couch. She smiled at them which made both of the boys inch away from her direction.

"Karin!" Suigetsu said angrily. He walked over to her and leaned in whispering. They could all hear Karin's defense of he already knew this about her. She smiled innocently and kissed him on the cheek. She made him sit down on the couch and calm down. Suigetsu did but then noticed something. "Than why did Itachi and Deidara go?"

"I was actually going to meet Deidara at the bar, but it was over crowded." Itachi said like he normally would have. Itachi's persuasiveness was kicking in. "I figured Sasuke and Naruto would have gone home, but oh well. If you're so upset about it, why don't you take Karin."

"You guys suck." Suigetsu muttered and grabbed Karin's hand. She smiled and said they could go out later. As Suigetsu sighed agreeing when Kisame came bursting into the room exhausted. "Yo, Kisame, what's up?"

"Itachi, can I speak with you, outside?" He said. He stretched and took in as much air as he could waiting for Itachi.

"Um-hm." Itachi hummed lowly. He followed Kisame into the adjoining basement and watched his friend gain his normal breathing pattern. "What's new?"

"First, garbage disposal's broken." Itachi sighed and rolled his eyes swearing under his breath about how it was new. Kisame stopped him and continued. "I got a call from Nagato, he's going to need more help on this, he's having trouble by himself. We may have to call him in to help Sasori, I know it…"

"It risks exposure. Get him in then. Hell, if we have to I'll drag in Orochimaru to help." Itachi huffed and shoved his hand in his pocket and felt the smooth card. He turned around for a second and took a calm breath. He comptemplated for a second and nodded his head facing back to Kisame. "On second thought, tell them to stay on stand by and keep up the work. Tell him to exchange the information he has with Sasori over Facebook. Most people wouldn't know what they're talking about, should be pretty safe. We should wait until later tonight when most of the campus won't recognize him."

"Right. So he didn't have a cure?" Kisame asked. Itachi shook his head slowly biting his lip in frustration. Kisame smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled. "It's gonna be okay. Sasuke's too stubborn to die. He literally might cure it himself, and I think we should let him try."

"Right." Itachi said smiling a bit. Kisame ruffed his hair up in a friendly manner and opened the door to the Black Bird basement. Itachi walked in and collapsed on the bed next to Sasuke and Naruto who were cuddled up. "So?"

Both Naruto and Sasuke turned to him, their expressions not as light as his was. Sasuke clicked his tongue and groaned. "My head feels like its split in two."

"Hello? About damn time!" Deidara's yell pierced through the house. He walked down the stairs the phone attached to his ear practically. He paced for a bit before stopping and looking over at the bed full of people. "Right, yea we'll bring him right away. Sasori's got the bed at the old medical building ready."

"Cool, Naruto, could you go pack Sasuke some extra clothes just in case?" Itachi asked sitting his head up getting the blond's attention. Naruto sat up nodding he stood up.

"Yea, sure." Naruto smiled and began to walk away as Karin stood up. "I'll come and help."

The two took off and headed up stairs making Sasuke think. He turned to his brother. "I'm not going to be there long am I? I have school."

"You hate school." Itachi said not understanding. Sasuke looked down and didn't respond. "Why's school so important now?"

"Naruto hates it when I miss." Sasuke said quietly. Itachi 'ahh-ed' and looked away.

"We'll try to keep it to a minimum. In the morning I'll call and tell them you're in the hospital." Itachi said smiling. Sasuke wasn't sure that Itachi could do that, but knowing him, Itachi had already switched everything over to his custody. Itachi patted Sasuke on the shoulder and sat up. "He can pick up your work for you and you'll be back ASAP."

"If I'm not I'm going to kick your ass, _mon frere_." Sasuke said with a smile. Itachi got a little worried but ignored it and got up.

-------(blAck bIrd)--------

"Sasuke was lying. Where'd you guys really skip off to?" Karin asked as she picked out Sasuke's clothes. She had banned Naruto from picking out clothes as he was just going to shove them from the drawer to a plastic bag they had grabbed out of the kitchen.

"We went to see Orochimaru." Naruto said quietly sitting on Sasuke bed. He looked at her as she stopped in the middle of folding the third black tank top. Slowly Karin finished folding the shirt and put it in the bag. She closed the drawer and turned to Naruto waiting for an explanation. "Sasuke's going to get worse, and there's no cure. We just have to keep our heads high and put all our faith in Sasori and the others."

"Oh my God." Karin shook her head and pulled out a few pairs of pants not taking the same care she had with his shirt.

"It's Sasuke, he's got to come out of it, even if he is genetically mutated or physically scarred or has the eyes of a vampire." Naruto said. He got up and put a hand on Karin trying to get her to look at him. "See, we got to keep up the happy. It'll help him. If he's too stubborn to see what's wrong, than so are we."

She nodded and tied the bag close at the top. Karin adjusted her glass and smiled heading out of Sasuke's room. Naruto followed her to the stairs. "You ever thought about a public speaking career?"

"No, but I think I should look into it." He said scratching his head.

-------(blAck bIrd)--------

"You understand, right?" Itachi asked of Naruto as they headed to Kisame's hummer. Sasuke was already in there thanks to Kisame being as strong as an ox. Sasuke wasn't getting any better and Itachi paternal, or fraternal, instincts were kicking in; he needed to be the closest thing to Sasuke or he was going to freak out.

"You're his brother, plus, you've gone through this. He needs you right now." Naruto said. Itachi smiled at the level of understanding. Naruto just smiled heading over to the passenger seat. "I'll just make faces at him from the front."

Naruto opened the front right door and hopped in to have Sasuke's blood-red eyes glare at him questioning the seating. Naruto stuck his tongue out at him and smiled. "Why aren't you back here? I was kind of hoping on laying on you."

"Itachi wanted to sit back there with you. He's still kind of freaking out." Naruto said sitting in the seat backwards. He offered a hand out to Sasuke and their fingers were locked in Sasuke's vice grip of a hand.

"I know." Sasuke muttered and looked up out the door to see Itachi open it. Itachi looked down at his baby brother who was sprawled over the seats.

"Karin, Suigetsu and Deidara will be coming after a while. All of them have some homework to do apparently." Kisame said getting in the Hummer. Sasuke muttered 'figures' and let go of Naruto pulling himself clearing the seat for Itachi and Kisame. His brother smiled as he climbed in. "Should have done it earlier."

"Well, Suigetsu only has to copy off of Karin probably." Sasuke flopped back on Itachi jolting his brother a bit. Sasuke rolled onto his side facing Naruto and used Itachi's leg as a pillow. He smiled as Nartuo sat down and they grabbed their hands back together. "Shouldn't be that long."

The ride was quite to the college with just Naruto and Sasuke exchanging glancing. To them they were alone; to Itachi it made him feel alone. As the car stopped outside the old medical building Itachi looked down at Sasuke while opening the door. "Hm?"

"No, you're comfy." Sasuke said purposefully being a pain. Itachi simply slipped out of the Hummer with ease and watched as Sasuke glared angrily at him. "I hate you."

"Right. Come on, Sasuke." Itachi smiled. Naruto got out after Kisame and helped Sasuke out of the car and onto his feet. They walked up a few meters before the door swung open to show Sasori without jacket and sleeves rolled.

"Good, you're here. How are you feeling?" He asked promptly as they assisted Sasuke through the door. Sasuke grunted for a minute.

"Like my head's going to explode, or implode."

"Come on the bed's this way." Kisame and Naruto led Sasuke into a sterile white room that smelled of bleach. Kisame let go and Naruto pulled Sasuke onto the bed and than crashed with him. "I've been talking with Nagato, we'll be conferencing tonight and start a full treatment tonight. Until than, I'm going to be filtering your blood and putting in something Nagato found to stabilize it temporarily."

"Right." Sasuke said. He turned to look at Naruto and smile. Sasori coughed loudly getting both their attention. "Once I get all the tubes in, you'll have to evacuate the bed."

"Now you're all attached to strings." Itachi said picking on what his brother had told him all those years ago, but only he, Sasuke and Kisame remembered that. Itachi and Sasuke glared at each other before Sasuke gave and smiled back at his _mon __frère_. "You need anything?"

"Go get me dinner, I want a steak, at this point it does not have to be cooked." Sasuke said half laughing. He didn't know why it was funny, but apparently to him it was and everyone noticed. Sasuke stopped and looked down somewhat embarrassed, his cheeks flushing a brighter red.

"Incorrect emotions are a part of the mutation. Don't worry; it'll stop at some point." Sasori assured and checked over a page on his clip board. "Liver would be better than steak. You're body is telling you to get more oxygen which would be by consuming more iron. I'll get you some Ferrous sulfate if Itachi will go get the food."

"I suppose, but you owe me, steak's expensive." Itachi muttered and began to head out the door.

"Wait." Sasuke said. He pulled out the tattered old wallet that belonged to his imprisoned uncle and opened it. He flipped through and pulled out a twenty waving it towards Itachi. "Here."

"Is that Madara's wallet?" Itachi asked taking the bill. Sasuke gulped slightly before gaining a bit of confidence.

"Well, it's mine now isn't it?" Sasuke nodded his head reaffirming himself. He looked at Itachi, he knew his brother's query by facial expression. "It only came with a couple dozen bucks, calm down."

Itachi nodded his head shoving the bill away as he left the room. Itachi nodded after Kisame who was his ride away. Naruto waited until he heard the front doors close loudly. "You're not going to tell him about the black credit card, are you?"

"Madara obtained a black credit card?" Sasori asked, his face scrunching like he was disgusted. "Why on earth would he want that? You really should tell Itachi that Madara has a black card."

"Well, it's mine now isn't it? And I don't want Itachi to know otherwise I'm going to have to scrap change for coffee in the morning." Sasuke rolled his eyes and began remembering how much of a penny pincher Itachi was. "It's like he hates money, and no human can hate money, its money. It's like hating air."

"Funny." Sasori rolled his eyes and pulled a stand out and began piling bags of blood on the table. Naruto knew it was time to move and got off the bed swiping his finger tips against Sasuke's face. He sat down in the chair at the far corner of the room and watched Sasuke watch him. Sasori finished and hung on of the bags up. "Alright little puppet, off with your shirt and on with your strings."

"Great, the fun part…" Sasuke tossed off his shirt and through it at Naruto and made a seductive kiss with his mouth slowly. Naruto just laughed silently to himself turning red.

Sasori rolled his eyes and smiled. "Well, considering your condition, you seem to be in good spirits. It's odd to say the least." Sasori put the first needle into Sauske's arm and attached it to an empty bag hanging from the bed. He then crossed to the other side of the bed and put in a needle that was attacked to a bag hanging from a hook. "Didn't always believe laughter wasn't a medicine, but it did help the patient's out a lot."

"It's because then they don't dwell on what's happening. It's not psychosomatic." Sasuke said and looked up at the ceiling tiles in an old pattern. He sighed his chest lowering greatly. "Remind me to write down my schedule for you so you can collect stuff for me, alright?"

"Okay." Naruto smiled and watched as Sasuke faked his smile. Even though it was a little one Naruto could see it as bright as day. Sasori's phone rang so he excused himself leaving Naruto and Sasuke alone. "How are you really doing?"

"Really?" Sasuke asked. Naruto nodded and walked over to the side of Sasuke's bed and grabbed his hand squeezing it. The smile disappeared and Sasuke stared straight ahead as if looking at a ghost. His eyes began to tear up and he inhaled sharply. "I'm scared I'm going to die Naruto… And it's all my fault."

Naruto didn't know what to say to that. He couldn't directly respond to Sasuke thinking he had accidentally incurred suicide. Naruto lowered his hands to Sasuke waist and in a flash squeezed him as hard as he could. He lowered his head onto Sasuke's chest so he avoided the stare of the Uchiha. Naruto gritted his teeth. "I don't know what I can do, but I'm not going to let you die."

"Naruto…" Sasuke reached a hand down and patted Naruto's thick hair until he looked up and saw a smile that had arisen despite his worries. '_Than I'm going to live Naruto, just for you.' _"Don't frown like that, _mon petit __renard__._ I'll be fine now."

"Cool." Naruto smiled stupidly and began to crawl up to meet Sasuke by the lips. Sasori was at the door shaking his head while smiling, he was tempted to yell at them reminding them that Sasuke was sick with IVs in his arms, but he felt he would be ignored. He shut the door slightly and walked down to the observation room where he had been gathering information. Sasori pulled out his laptop and got online with Nagato through the built in web cam.

Nagato tilted his head slightly. "You seem distracted."

"Slightly." He said and spared a glance at Sasuke and Naruto through the one-way mirror. They had stopped and were cuddling on the bed, still against what he asked. "Sasuke's being a teenager… Anything new?"

"Not that you want to hear, I assure you." Nagato was handed a shoulder-strap bag from Konan who had appeared in the background gathering things. "We're coming in. We'll be there in about twenty minutes, I'll bring coffee and you're going to need it."

"Great…" Sasori muttered running his hands though his hair. "Park on the side of the building and I'll open a window, it appeared Tsunade's been having her assistant watch me."

"Right, congrats on the nomination, by the way." The screen shut down and Sasori laid his head on the laptop trying together his composure for a minute. There was a knock at the open door and Deidara walked in slowly with a large bag of greasy fast food. He smiled and Sasori just grabbed the bag muttering about heart disease. He ignored his own warning and began eating a greased burger. Deidara looked through the mirror and smiled. "Aww…"

"Yea, aww… Naruto has to get down soon, I have a dialysis machine being cleaned, I should be able to retrieve it in the next hour."

"Geez, you're a ray of sunshine aren't you? What's gotten up your ass?"

"I have a dying boy on my hands who I can't properly treat, there's the Dean of Medicine breathing down my throat if I mess up in the slightest and I have to go in tomorrow afternoon for an interview for the Dean of science position and I don't even know if I want it or not! That's what's gotten up my ass." Sasori whispered hoarsely. He quickly took another bite and turned away from Deidara who muttered 'And…' "No and."

"AND!" Deidara stomped his foot.

"My niece, the one with the three kids… She's dying in the hospital right now. The kids don't have anywhere else to go, but one's in college already and another's going into it in fall." Sasori said and sighed looking up at Sasuke and Naruto who had obviously fallen asleep in each other's arms. "I was going to petition to get them, but I don't know if I can handle a teenager going through depression."

"If Itachi can do it, you won't have any problem." Deidara said put a hand on his shoulder. "Plus you've been putting up with me, right?"


	52. Glare

Naruto awoke on a couch outside Sasuke's room with Itachi at the opposite end nodded off asleep. Naruto looked up at the clock on the wall reading just before seven. 'Do I want to go into school?' Naruto lay there unchanged for a second debating before it was solved for him. Sasori and Nagato ran from the observation room into Sasuke's as some alarm went off. Both Naruto and Itachi lurched foreword racing into the room.

"It's a blood pressure drop, inject it in the IV and turn up the drip rate." Sasori barked loudly. Naruto and Itachi just watched as Sasuke lay there, his chest slowly rising and falling. He had more tubes injected everywhere, including ones in his stomach and a breathing tube down his throat. Sasori raced across the room and grabbed a needle and turned to look at them. He paused for just a second and went back to aiding with Sasuke.

"For scientists, they're doing their best." Itachi muttered silently. Naruto looked down at the floor soaking up the words. '_For scientists…'_ Naruto got an idea in his head, not one anyone else would like, but it was the best idea he could hatch. "What if we got someone who was a doctor specializing in the nervous system."

"You know someone?" Nagato asked looking up. Naruto nodded quickly his hair flailing. Sasori turned his head over to Naruto and smiled. "If we get exposed… we get exposed. His life's more important. Wouldn't you say Nagato?"

"I think I would enjoy prison again, it was… fun. Go get 'um." Nagato ordered of Naruto. Naruto smiled and began running out grabbing Itachi's forearm. "Come on, we'll have to convince her."

"Her, who are we convincing?" Itachi asked as they ran across the lawn and Naruto charged over to the literary building. Naruto didn't answer but dragged him over to Jiraiya's office and burst through the door to which he looked up and bagel in hand. He stopped at the sight of Itachi. "Um, kiddo…"

"Why the Hell is there an Uchiha in this office?" Tsunade yelled from behind them. Naruto finally let go of Itachi's arm so they could turn around and see Tsunade in her normal green suit with a fresh cup of coffee in her hand. "Naruto Uzumaki, you had better…"

"We need your help." Naruto said stepping towards her. "Sasuke's… He's not doing so well. Sasori's trying but he's not a medical person, he's more into the science."

"So that's who you've got over there." Tsunade said and moved past them to sit in Jiraiya's office chair. She looked at them and glared. "Take him to a hospital."

"They won't be able to do anything, Sasuke's in need of the best scientists and medical professionals." Itachi said he than threw his hands down and glared at Tsunade face to face with anger. "You have to help us; it's your ex-husband's fault! You used to be rivals; you're near his level on neurologics, right? Right!"

"Oro… Orochimaru?" She whispered angrily and stood up slowly. She crushed her coffee cup in her hand having it spill over the fortunately cleared-off desk. "He's alive? That snake is still wandering around!"

"Granny! Are you going to help us or not!?" Naruto asked shoving Itachi out of the way. Tsuande was once again taken a back by what she thought to be a boy who wasn't this brash. "Well?"

"Why are you so willing to help an Uchiha? If you don't remember Madara had your house burned down, he tried to have you killed." Tsunade said and Naruto just smiled. "What?"

"First, Sasuke isn't Madara, and if you think that then you're being way too presumptuous." Naruto than looked at Itachi if he should speak of his and Sasuke relationship, Itachi nodded thinking it was necessary. Naruto huffed in a breath and began nervously muttering. "Secondly, Sasuke's… my boyfriend and I really don't want him to die."

"Naruto." Jiraiya quickly stood and embraced his ward. "It'll be okay, Tsunade's going to cancel her classes today and go help. Isn't that right, Tsu?"

"Yea." She said quickly and walked over pulling Naruto away from Jiraiya. She looked at him and smiled cupping his face in her hands. "I'm sorry if I've caused you any grief Naruto."

Tsunade patted his face and turned her attention to Itachi apologizing for her behavior and calling it unacceptable. Accepting Itachi began to explain what had happened and that she would need to keep who she was working with a secret as they walked out of the room leaving Naruto alone with Jiraiya. "So, that's why you up and moved out?"

"At first, it was because they could protect me better, Sasuke had all the inside secrets and such. But now, yea, I'm staying with him. I just didn't know how to tell you I was gay." Naruto wiped his eyes a little before he started to cry. "Can you call me in sick today? I want to stay with Sasuke."

"Of course, Naruto. Why don't you get over there, I'll call you in immediately." Jiraiya patted him on the head and smiled. Naruto quickly ran out of the room letting Jiraiya began to think. He just shook his head astounded and picked up his phone. "Wow…"

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

"You can up the dosage safely." Tsunade said as she added another syringe of medicine into one of Sasuke's tubes. Nagato watched her carefully studying her every movement. She finally noticed and looked up tempted to growl. "What is it?"

"You we're really married to Orochimaru?" Nagato asked looking at her. She nodded and kept working on Sasuke as diligently as she could. "How did you ever come to that point?"

"We were in our twenties and stupid. That's all I'm going to say on the matter." She finished then sighed sitting down in the chair near the bed. Sasuke was breathing a little better, however his blood pressure had only risen slightly. "What are you up to, Sasori?"

Sasori kept imputing information before he gave an enraged huff. He stopped kicking the wall letting off some steam. The noise was enough to get the attention of the ravened haired man just outside. He side-stepped closer to the door and listened carefully. "I'm trying to find the exact faults in Sasuke's DNA, however, it could take weeks!"

"Which we don't have, I'd be lenient giving him a week. Orochimaru didn't even have a reversal serum according to Itachi." Nagato muttered. At the news Tsunade shot her thumb nail in her mouth and gnawed on it nervously.

"If Madara was here… He could re-make the longevity serum, he was the only one with the complete formula, and he has it somewhere." Itachi eyes grew wide. He mouthed 'Madara could save Sasuke' angrily and began out the building without making a sound.

"Hey, Itachi…" Deidara yelled as the doors closed. The Uchiha turned his head and recalled Nagato's words from before: '_All those two have to do is encounter another Deidara and he's out scott-free basically.' _ For once Itachi had found a good use of Deidara's love to make things explode.

"Do you have any C4?" Itachi grabbed his shoulder and turned their direction towards the parking lot. Itachi reached in his pocket and squeezed the car keys to Kisame's hummer.

Deidara was a little confused by the question and his expression showed it. He scratched his head trying to keep pace. "Um, yea, oodles of it. I keep it in my suitcase at Sasori's."

"We're going to get it." Itachi said and opened the back door to Kisame's hummer and tossed him inside. Itachi climbed in the driver's seat and shut the door starting the car. Deidara climbed in the front seat and looked at him. "Do you think you can blast through concrete walls?"

"Yea, that's easy… Why?" Deidara waited for a second and watched as Itachi's lips moved as they peeled out of the parking lot. He stopped for a minute. "We are going to break out the man we just put in prison why? I mean, I don't have a death wish, you shouldn't have a death wish."

"Madara may be able to save Sasuke, that's all that matters."

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

Itachi had removed Kisame's license plate, national park sticker and anything out of the ordinary that was on the hummer and then had suited him and Deidara in completely black outfits with ski masks. Deidara was still shaky on the whole thing. He was fine with blowing up a prison, that didn't bother him in the least. What did was what Madara was going to do to them for betraying him.

"What if he just goes psycho and stabs us with a prison shank?" Deidara asked. Itachi stopped the hummer and looked at him, not saying a word through the mask. He pointed a finger in his face and ended Deidara's thoughts of backing down. "Alright, geez…"

"How fast can you get it to explode?" Deidara shrugged checking the C4 bomb over. He looked at the counter and did some calculations in his head. He sighed and pulled out a little vile and duct taped it to the front. "Is that Nitro?"

"I stole some when I blew up the science building. I toss it at the wall and you shoot it." Itachi nodded and put the car into drive. Deidara hugged the bomb to his chest as Itachi floored the hummer and within seconds went through the cross-link fence of the state prison. He quickly parked the car by the wall where Madara's cell was and they got out. "Here's hoping!"

Deidara through the bomb just outside Madara's window and Itachi pulled the trigger on his gun.

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

Madara Uchiha sat staring at the drawing of Godzilla squishing the cat. He knew the sketch was a threat; however, it was also very good. He found it most entertaining during the boring parts of the day. It made him recall when he went to see the movies as they came out in theaters. Through the past couple days with no contact with the outside world, he had found the drawing to become a friend, which was awkward to him as it was just a drawing. He blamed it on being old.

When he heard the loud sound of a car stopping outside he also blamed this on being old. His mind changed however when a large dark object floated up in front of his window and quickly detonated in a bright and violent flash. He was tossed back against his bars and watched as the light faded away with chunks of concrete falling around him. He opened his eye through his mask and saw a black figure pull itself up with a cat's grace into his cell.

"Well, it's about time someone…" Madara was yanked by the collar to his feet. He was dragged to the hole in the wall where they fell out, his abductor on his feet and he on his abductor's back. "You know, this isn't the proper way… Hey!"

Madara was tossed in the back seat as the guards came running to his cell. By the time they had their guns out to shoot the hummer was gone. Madara sat foreword on the edge of the seat trying to display certain coolness about the situation. "Not to be rude or ungrateful, but what the Hell is going on?"

Deidara quickly took off his mask and turned around smiling. "Hi, I know we didn't leave off on the best terms knowing that I blew up your building but hopefully…"

"Shut up Deidara." Itachi snapped quickly. As he quickly turned the corner he pushed them onto the highway and tried to blend into traffic. Itachi took off his mask and sighed. "Orochimaru got a hold of Sasuke, he's dying."

"WHAT? Why the fuck did you let him get a hold of Sasuke? You're supposed to protect him!" Madara bellowed from the backseat. He pushed himself halfway into the front seat and pointed a finger at Itachi. "He is your baby brother. How could you let this happen?"

"Sasuke went and saw him, I was busy trying to update everyone on getting rid of Orochimaru. Sasori said you had the serum you were working on, we need it for Sasuke." Itachi went straight to the point and than shoved his uncle back. He turned to get off the highway and drove to Sasori's house. "Where's it at?"

"On the internet of course. Just in case I need to access it at anytime." Madara cooed. He waited for someone to say how amazing that was, but it didn't happen. "Deidara, take him inside, get him some clothes, and print it off."

"Right, come on Madara." Deidara said getting out.

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

Sasuke's eyes blinked open a few times slowly taking in the bright lights of the room above him. It burned his eyes and he groaned from the discomfort. He wanted to roll into a little ball but felt his arms strapped down along with his legs. He could feel the breath tube in his throat and how much it hurt. '_Shit, what did I do this time?'_

"Hey!" Naruto said happily appearing in his view. Sasuke felt a sudden wave of relief come over him as Naruto grabbed his hand tightly and kissed him on the forehead. "I hope you don't mind, you were tossing a lot so we had to strap you down. Granny says we have to leave your breathing tube in for now, apparently you can breath it's just not enough to support your body right now."

'_Damn it this thing's killing me. Hey, why aren't you in school? Tsuande?' _Sasuke's eyes dodged over to see Tsunade walking over with a clip board and a forehead thermometer. She placed it on his head noticing he was awake. "Thank God you're awake, now Naruto can stop freaking out. He was practically in the fetal position."

"I was not, that's just how I felt most comfortable in the chair." Naruto said and saw that Sasuke was smiling from behind the mask. "Your brother got you the steak but we were passed-out before he got back with it so I ate it for breakfast, I hope you don't mind. There's no other food here." Sasuke shook his head what little he could. He scooted over what he could as Tsunade walked away reading the temperature and nodding her head with its readings. Sasuke pointed to the space for Naruto to fill. "Sasori will yell at me. He was already upset about me falling asleep on you last night, said it took him and Nagato to move me to the bench outside."

"Itachi, have you lost your mind!" The words echoed through the halls of the old medical building until Tsunade looked up from her work to see Nagato come in shaking his head. "What's going on?"

"Itachi brought someone to err… help, Ms. Senju." Nagato said politely as Itachi walked in and went directly over to Sasuke's free side and ruffed his hair. They watched him for a minute before Itachi noticed what Nagato had, Tsunade was still here.

"Itachi, we are having a talk when Sasuke has his recovery." Sasori said bursting into the room more than upset at this. You could tell he hadn't slept in over a day and it was taking its toll on his mental state, the bags under his eyes were huge.

Slowly a figured walked in sporting a simple pair of black pants and a white button up shirt with a metal mask on his face and waved. Sasuke and Naruto scowled immediately. "Hi Sasuke. Hello Tsunade."

"Madara? What the… I assume you're here to help as well?" Tsuande quickly crossed her arms and glared at him, her made-up eye twitching in agitation.

"Itachi brought me. Why are you here?" He asked mocking her crossing his arms.

"Naruto brought me." She said calmly. She looked at Naruto for a minute who was trying to carefully read the situation. Tsunade stuck out her hand. "Truce? We're not here for petty arguments."

"Agreed." Madara said and they quickly shook hands. Madara then looked over to Nagato who was just standing there starring. "Nag, why are _you_ here?"

"Itachi kidnapped me." Nagato lied quickly. Itachi decided to take it from there. "I decided if I was going to be forced to work with your kind, Madara, I'd start with the lesser evil and something I didn't have to break out of jail. Also, he works for Skittles."

"I do…" Nagato said pulling a pack out of his lab coat. He opened them and began eating. He stopped, "Sasori and I need to get some sleep, we've been up for two days now. We'll go pass out and take the night shift. Can you two handle that?"

Tsunade and Madara looked at each other thinking. Naruto stepped in, "We'll make _sure_ they play nice." Naruto looked to Itachi who nodded sharply. Nagato tapped Sasori on the shoulder and they exited the room.

Suddenly Naruto felt a tugging on his hand from Sasuke. Naruto and Itachi stared at him. "I think he wants his breathing tube out." "Shouldn't hurt for a minute." "Right, here." Itachi said taking the tube out slowly. "Probably feels better, huh?"

"First, can I get fed now? I'm starving." Sasuke asked quickly through a horse whisper. Itachi quickly rushed out of the room. Sasuke than turned to Naruto. "Secondly, Sasori's gone."

"Fine, I'm just afraid I'll sit on one of your IVs." Naruto said and sat down at the edge of the bed. Sasuke than looked to Madara. "Lastly, I hope you've had someone feeding your cats, 'cause neither Itachi or I have been."

"Thankfully I assigned Konan to that. Starving my cats." Madara said and Deidara came in with a thick stack of papers. Madara took it and handed it to Tsunade. "I'm going to need help recreating this. It's the serum Quantity was working on, so far, we've only been able to increase life by a couple days with one dosage, however, if we make enough in time, it should give Sasori and Nagato enough time to cure Sasuke."

"I've been dying to get my hands on this stuff…" Tsunade said and they began walking out of the room. Deidara walked up and waved at Sasuke. Sasuke glared. Deidara glared. Naruto rolled his eyes at them.


	53. Pictures and Papers

"Yo, Sick-o, how's life?" Suigetsu walked in the room with Karin by his side. He jumped up on the foot of the bed and smiled stupidly making Sasuke laugh. "You seem well enough."

"Yea, but I can't hold my head up. I think that indicates a problem." Sasuke watched as Kisame strolled in and went to Itachi's side asking him if there were any major updates. Itachi nodded and pulled him out of the room. Sasuke sighed, "You tell them."

"Itachi and Deidara broke Madara out of jail; he's working with Tsunade on something right now." Naruto said starring at them with as much seriousness he could muster. There were three loud cries of 'What?!' and Kisame followed Itachi back in the room muttering about how blowing up a prison was illegal. "It was nessacary."

"Naruto's right." Itachi cooed and shooed them all away from Sasuke to kiss him on the forehead. "Kisame and I are going back to his house for a bit to grab some of the new pain killer formula. Do you need anything?"

"You ask that every time, _mon frere_. I'll be fine, I've got three scientist a doctor, my boyfriend, my best friend and a crazy fan girl to watch out for me. I think I'm good." Sasuke said trying to stress the fact he would be well taken care of. Itachi nodded having basically been kicked out of the room. He and Kisame exited leaving the teens alone.

"Jugo wanted to give this to you." Suigetsu said pulling out a bottle of Sobe from one of his pant's pockets. "He said they probably weren't feeding you well enough so you should at least drink something. I was going to smuggle in some French fries, but they would have smelled them."

"That's fine; Itachi bought me five Big Macs and made me eat three of them." Sasuke said and swiveled his head to look at Karin who just starred at him like he was helpless lost cat. "You look all stoic and sad. What's wrong Karin?"

"Nothing, nothing. Just some bitch at school." She lied and everyone picked up on it quickly, however Naruto was the only one who knew she was worried about Sasuke. Karin lowered her head than raised it angrily to push the lie. "That bitch said I looked like a whore! She was the one in the fishnets with five different guys following her."

"Don't worry, if I see her, I'll kill her for you." Suigetsu said fondly and quickly grabbed her claiming his girlfriend. "Anyway, I picked up your work, its back at Black Bird though, along with Jugo… and Tayuya."

"He brought her home?" Naruto and Sasuke asked at the same time. They both looked at each other and smiled. Sasuke looked down. "Guess I started a trend, huh? Oh well."

Deidara knocked on the door and stuck his head in looking at them. "Um, hey, Tsuande and Madara wanted to talk with you…Naruto, and Itachi, if he's around."

"He just left. What is it?" Deidara shrugged as Naruto left the bed promising Sasuke he would soon return. They walked down the hall passing a darkened room with the door open. Sasori was passed out on the bed with Nagato on the floor using his lab coat as a pillow. Naruto turned his sight back to Deidara who opened a door at the end of the hall. Naruto walked into it quietly, the beakers and test tubes around were all heated and swishing around different colored liquids.

Naruto made his way to the back where calmly sitting at opposite sides of a two-person table Tsuande and Madara were prepping the final additions to the Quantity serum. He stopped and waited for them to look at him. "What's up?"

"Where's Itachi?" Madara asked setting down the syringes he was working with.

"He's out, went back to Kisame's to pick stuff up." Madara muttered 'oh right' and turned to Tsunade who looked away muttering under her breath. "What is it granny?"

"It's a bad idea now; he'll get slaughtered if he goes by himself." Tsunade said and bit her lip. "I'll go myself, I can deal with him. I may not be able to fight him but I can mess with his head enough to get out safely."

"Safely; not with his formula, though." Madara turned to Naruto and crossed his leg over the other. He sat very gentleman-like for a murder which kind of made Naruto want to step back. "How much do you love Sasuke?"

--------(blAck bIrd)---------

"You lied to me about cake. Bastards." Suigetsu said slightly pissed. He was happy that Tsunade let them borrow her Mercades and that Naruto let him drive as they needed to reach their destination fast. He was still upset that they didn't tell him the truth. "I mean come on, why hide it?"

"We did it because you'd freak out like this. This is exactly why Itachi came up with the cake lie; this is why you're doing…" Naruto looked at the speedometer to see them pushing sixty miles per hour. "You going to get us pulled over."

"I don't care. He's my best friend. You don't lie about your friend fucking dying, okay?!" Suigetsu said and pulled off the accelerator some. He calmed down and began looking around. "Where's his house at?"

"Next block, white with purple on it." Naruto muttered. Before they had left Deidara slipped Naruto his gun and harness, fully loaded along with a grenade and his jacket to hide it all. He had tried to give the explosive back but the law student had insisted that the grenade Orochimaru couldn't run from. He had given the grenade to Suigetsu before they got in the car because he didn't want to accidentally set it off.

Suigetsu slowed the car into a stop and parked it right in front of Orochimaru's house. Naruto unbuckled and got out, "Come on. Let's go talk to the crazy person."

"Hehe. Crazy person." Suigetsu muttered following him up the sidewalk to the house. They casually walked up onto the porch and Naruto knocked loudly. He than stepped back and just waited. "Um… guns blazing… I have a knife and grenade…. Can't we just burst in?"

"At one point we may need to cooperate with him, so I'm going to be as civil as possible. If worse comes to worse, we may need to ask him to help out Tsunade and Madara." Naruto said. He watched as Kabuto opened the door a little shocked. "Is Orochimaru here? We kind of need to talk to him."

"Actually, no. He went to buy more tea; we kind of go through pretty fast." Kabuto said opening the door fully revealing his was in a bright pink apron and yellow dishwashing gloves. "You're welcome to come in and wait for him. He just went down to the corner store."

"Sure, thanks. I'm Naruto Uzumaki by the way and this is…"

"Suigetsu… I don't really have a last name." He said stepping in behind Naruto.

"Well, that's peculiar, not something you hear about everyday. I'm Kabuto Yakushi, I'm Orochimaru's assistant." He said bowing to them quickly. The boys just nodded somewhat and watched as he lead them into the parlor where the fireplace was going. "Please wait here, I'll call and tell him he has guests."

Kabuto walked out closing the doors leaving Naruto and Suigetsu to sit down the chairs and just wait nervously. Suigetsu sat back and sided starring at Naruto who had drifted away into the flames crackling a few feet away. "So, we're asking him for his notes on what he gave Sasuke?"

"Somewhat. We need the formula, the chemical compounds and things like that. It's not my field of study, I'm not that positive on it." The front door was heard opening and slight voices could be made out. Without hesitation Orochimaru opened the doors and walked in with a small plastic bag in his hand. Naruto stood and than glared at Suigetsu to do the same. He stood quickly and they exchanged a questioning glare with Orochimauru.

"Well, I was partially expecting Itachi, you the bulky one." Orochimaru said pointing over to Naruto. "You're Sasuke's boyfriend right? And you, you look like that child seen with Kisame. You're his ward, correct?"

"Right on both counts." Suigetsu said. Naruto gulped and nodded his head for Suigetsu to ask. "We need your notes or your formula on what you gave to Sasuke. They can't keep up with it and he's not going to live much longer it we can't figure out some of what you've done."

"I know you're not inclined to help, but you've got your revenge on Itachi. What's the point of having Sasuke die right now? Help us please, even if it's just two percent of your work." Naruto pleaded trying to be reasonable.

Orochimaru hadn't expected this. He raised his hand to his chin and began thinking. He lowered his hand and shook his head. "I'm sorry, if I reveal the information I wouldn't be safe. It's not my formula; I only have permission to use it. I'm not immortal, I can be killed, and 9 will kill me if I give it away. Love to help but can't."

"Than come in and help! Madara and Tsunade are working their asses off…"

"Tsu's there?" Orochimaru said nearly playfully. He clasped his hands together excitedly. "Oh, I haven't seen her in years. I wonder if she remembers me."

"Yea, we told her what you did, she wasn't too happy to hear you're alive." Naruto growled. Orochimaru caught his sediment and sighed. "Help us."

"Sorry can't."

"Help us, please. You'll get to see Tsunade again."

"My life isn't worth…" Orochimaru wished he hadn't closed his eyes to shake his head. He opened them to a barrel of a very large gun. His face twitched a bit, he could only dodge the shot by a bit. "So my choices are help you and die by 9 or die by your hand and you raid my house, I take it. You're so like him. He pointed a gun at my face when he began looking for 9."

"Like I know who you're talking about. I just want to save Sasuke." Naruto said on the verge of tears. Orochimaru stared at him for a minute, half smiling and half dazed. _"I just want to save Kushina. You've got to understand. You we're one of my mentors. You know what it's like to lose the woman you love, please, Orochimaru. Where is he?"_

"_I've been looking myself, Minato. I… I don't know. I'm sorry I can't help you..." Minato's hand went to his face as he lowered the gun and dropped to his knees. Before Orochimaru, Minato Kamikaze fell to pieces bawling on the floor making him remember how he felt when Tsunade left him. Orochiamru lowered himself down and patted Minato on the head. "I'm so, so very sorry."_

"You've got to help me!" Naruto said and grabbed Orochimaru's collar forcing him against he door. Suigetsu watched as Naruto nearly had a mental break down on Orochimaru pointing the gun at his head. "You useless piece of shit! You've just been ruining everything! This is you're chance to set something right and you're going to do it! I'm not losing Sasuke because you're scared of some guy! I don't care if you're scared or not, I want Sasuke better now!"

"You're more aggressive than Minato…" Orochiamru said a little surprised. He took a deep breath and smacked the gun away. Orochimaru watched the two small streams of tears coming down Naruto's face and pulled out a handkerchief. "Don't want to go back letting them know that crying got you the formula. Come along."

Naruto took the handkerchief and wiped his face clean and nodded to Suigetsu to follow him. Orochimaru lead them into the lab where he quickly opened an intently clean filing cabinet and began shifting through papers. Naruto kept sniffling and Suigetsu quickly told him to man up through a light whisper. They turned back to Orochimaru who began muttering.

"About 16 years it's been… you must have had it hard." He pulled out a thin file flipped through it and set it down looking at Naruto. He face was pretty confused. "You don't know, do you? What's you last name again?"

"Huh… Uzumaki…" Naruto nearly asked it. He wasn't sure what Orochimaru was getting on about until he smiled and nodded with a bit of laughter behind it. "You know something…"

"Pale kid, take this and go wait outside." Orochimaru said quickly shoving a thick folder at Suigetsu. It landed in his arms with a loud thud and Suigetsu looked a little bit angry. "That's everything you'll need to help you're precious Sasuke, now go on."

"Whatever, just hurry up Naruto. This place is creepy." Suigetsu moaned and walked out of the lab muttering under his breath. The doors flapped behind hima dn slowly closed. Naruto turned to Orochimaru who had moved down the lab to a locked cupboard he quickly found a key for. "So, what do you know about me?"

"You're father, he was my best graduate student. Originally he was just goofing off with Jiraiya when he was starting out, but than just one day… up and began college, graduated in half the time and began to follow in my footsteps." Orochimaru said and pulled out an old album he blew the dust off. He set the leather bound book on the table and began to flip through it. "Sadly, he followed a bit too closely and than over took me. Here, take this."

Orochimaru handed Naruto a picture of a blond man in a lab coat surrounded by Orochimaru, Tsunade and Madara. "That's my father? Why's he with Madara?"

"Madara used to work under him until he resigned and took off. Any other information, you dig up on your own. I'm not one to spoil people." Orochimaru said closing the album and setting it back inside. "By the way, tell Tsunade I said hello and I didn't mean to mutate her pet slug."

"Right. Thank you." Naruto said and began walking out. Orochimaru smiled and told him to visit any time as he met Suigetsu in the parlor. He showed the picture and smiled. "That's my dad."

"Dude… You look like his twin." Suigetsu said doing a double take. Naruto smiled as he shoved the picture away and opened the doors for Suigetsu. They walked out with the files content and Kabuto stared at them surprised, so they waved. Leaving Kabuto got upset and quickly rushed to see if Orochimaru was okay.

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

"You take the files; I want to go see Sasuke." Naruto said walking away from Suigetsu as he entered Sasuke room to see Karin curled up on the end of the bed starring at a now slumbering Sasuke. Naruto walked up quietly and placed his hand on her shoulder. "When did he fall back asleep?"

"He didn't. For the medicine from Madara, you have to be put under. Since it was used, his heartbeats gotten stronger, however, everything else… He's just staying the same, basically." Karin whispered quietly. "Where's Suigetsu? I want to go home and crawl in bed."

"He's with Tsunade and Madara. Come on." Naruto said and helped Karin off the bed. He led her down to the room where Suigetsu was about finish his sentence about Naruto being given the picture of his father when Naruto interrupted him. "Karin needs to go home; she's not doing so well."

Karin nodded and suigetsu pulled his arms around her. He held her for a minute then nodded goodbye to Tsunade and Madara leaving. Madara shook his head. "I thought Kisame was joking when he said Suigetsu really had calmed down extremely. Who would have thought?"

"What did Orochimaru give you?" Tsuande asked looking at him. '_If they didn't tell me, there was a reason for it. It must have been a good reason.'_ Naruto shook his head. "That boy said he gave you something."

"Oh, just a packet of tea. Told me I should detox." Naruto lied quickly and turned to leave. He stopped and looked back at her smiling, "Oh, Orochimaru was very happy to hear about you. He says hello and something about slugs and mutations, I dunno, he sounded sorry."

"Bastard." Tsunade crushed her cup of tea over Madara's notes.

"Woman have some control over your temper!" Madara yelled quickly clearing off the table and wiping the pages off. Naruto laughed as he exited and walked over to Sasuke's room. The room was still empty so he pulled up the chair to Sasuke's bed and just stared hoping he would wake up.


	54. Ninjaed

Hello all, we are nearing the end of Black Bird, so I thought I might warn, there is a chance it will be prolonged. I've been horribly horribly busy between classes (which have just ended), helping out around the house, and my new boyfriend. Next weeks might be late showing up around Wednesday, but it will be up sometime next week. Have a happy Spring/Summer, Aki

* * *

Itachi, Naruto and Deidara were sitting on a bench outside Sasuke's room in that order. Sasori and Nagato had just been woken up and were in an office with Tsunade and Madara discussing how the past twelve hours had gone. They of course were discussing everything including that Naruto had gone and 'robbed' Orochimaru. This is why Itachi, Naruto and Deidara were sitting on a bench outside Sasuke's room in that order.

Itachi was gently biting his hand trying to think of a way to lecture Naruto who was in no way his responsibility. He felt he should since he was older and robbing people at gun point would eventually land one in jail or dead. Also due to the fact Sasuke would easily do the same since Naruto and Sasuke were dating. He couldn't think of anything which is why he had Deidara there going over the legal implications.

"And that's why you'll get 25 to life with intent to it. Now, say he was attacking you with just his fists and you pull a gun, you're elevating the fight making you the aggressor even if he started it." Dediara said and sighed scratching his head. "Also, the gun's mine and has my finger prints on it, and I would lie letting you go to jail for perjury since you would say I gave it to you, but I'm a respectable college student so no one would believe you."

"Dude… you suck. You give me your gun than scold me for it! Like he would go to the police anyway! I held him up for research, they're going to inquire what it was over and I don't think he'd get away with his Grandma's cookie recipe!" Naruto yelled in protest. Itachi patted Naruto on the head making shush-ing noises until he calmed down. "I don't see where he has the right to lecture me when he blew up the freakin' science building."

"He has a point, Deidara. And Naruto, all he was trying to say is don't be like us. We're terrible people, we do bad things. One day everything's going to catch up to us and we're all going to be screwed over by our pasts." Itachi muttered and made everyone feel terrible. The three were quickly distracted by yelling from the office down the hall. "Sounds like Madara and Tsunade are back at it. Those two can't agree for a minute."

Naruto got up and went down to the office silent. He opened the door and stepped in walking past some books. "That's a terrible idea! You'll kill him for sure." Naruto turned a corner and saw the small table the four were gathered around. "We don't know how accurate the affects detailed here are to Sasuke's, we could kill him by curing him." Naruto walked up and saw Tsunade began to bundle her fist.

"Shut up, both of you." Madara and Tsunade stopped and looked at Naruto. His face was dark and serious. Naruto pulled out a chair and sat down between Sasori and Nagato and watched them as they glared astonished. "If you're trying to test something on him, stop being idiots. Pull some blood and use Itachi, he won't protest. Can you stop bickering and get back to work now?"

"We we're going to switch off anyhow." Nagato said and patted Naruto on the head. As he and Sasori walked away the comment 'At least he knows what he's doing' left both Nagato and Sasori smiling. Tsunade sat down and looked over at Naruto. Madara was going to walk away but Naruto quickly pointed to his seat. "Sit down."

"Well, if you insist." Madara said and watched as Naruto scratched his head nervously. "Don't know what to say boy?"

"No, it's just… I wanted to talk to you both about somebody. Orochimaru didn't give me tea, he gave me this." Naruto pulled out the picture and pushed it in front of them pointing to Minato. The two looked at it then pulled back exchanging a glance. "I didn't want to bug you guys with it while you were working. That guy at the desk… Orochimaru told me that's my dad."

Tsuande looked down. "I should have mentioned something sooner… He's dead. He went insane and burned his house down after your mother died of a complication during birth. Before that, he was a good man, he took very good care of your mother and spent more time picking out colors for the baby room than work."

"He also snapped at people and did whatever he felt necessary all the time, maybe that is where you get it from. I'd make a little joke about decapitation and get the death stare from a twenty four year old that out-ranked me." Madara complained. Tsunade nudged him, "What, he was a harsh man, you know that. He ripped into after you suggested we get monkeys for experiments."

"So, he was right. We could save thousands and do it without hurting innocent creatures."

"I'm just glad he pissed you off just like I'm going to piss you off. I'll tell Itachi you're ready to be detained for the night. Maybe they have a nice padded cell in the basement for you." Naruto smiled his finger tips grabbing the picture and headed out to a string of curse words. Tsunade broke down laughing telling him to expect this for the rest of his life. Naruto walked out and smiled at Itachi. "Please tell me we get to toss Madara into a padded cell for the night."

"Better… Kisame emptied out the Cadaver lab and warmed it up. He'll be locked in there for the night." Itachi nodded to the picture and Naruto showed it to him. "He looks like you."

"That's my dad, Orochimaru gave me this." Naruto said and Dedidara grabbed the picture. He stared at it for a minute before Nagato stole it and saw the couple.

"Tsuande and Orochimaru really were married. Holy shit. That's him, the Namikaze…" Nagato help up the picture and pointed the man out to Itachi, "That's the research who was working on limb regeneration."

"Good news for you, Nagato!" Deidara said and grabbed Naruto and shoved him foreword. "This happens to be his son. You can use Naruto as bait to lure him out of hiding and get all the research you want as ransom."

"Tempting…Just post it up on Facebook." Nagato said scratching the stubble on the side of his face. He held the picture back to Naruto. "If he ever shows up, send him in my direction. Also, Sasuke's up, he wants you."

Naruto bolted from them to Sasuke's side. Itachi stood up and grabbed Deidara whispering something threatening in his ear. Deidara's eyes grew to saucer plates as Itachi smiled letting go. Itachi walked into the once again argue-filed offices leaving Deidara to clutch his stomach trying to feel safer. Nagato just stared. "What he say?"

"He said he would give me to Orochimaru with a big bow on top if I didn't behave." Nagato broke out laughing and walked down the hall leaving Deidara to walk out of the building feeling venerable. Two seconds later he walked back in and sat back down on the bench, "It would be even easier outside. Damn it he's good."

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

Naruto walked in the room and was greeted by two half open eyes. Sasuke gaze intensified as Naruto approached the bed until he smiled as Naruto grabbed his hand, their fingers interlocked. "Hey, it's about time you woke up."

Sasuke smiled from behind his mask and turned his head what he could to Sasori who was in the corner. Naruto followed the line of sight and nodded. "You want his attention? Sasori, Sasuke wants you."

"Hm? Is something bothering you?" Sasori asked walking over Sasuke pointed a restrained hand towards his head and made a cringing face. "Ah, headache. It's common during this treatment. I'll get you some water; it's due to partial dehydration."

Sasori walked away and Sasuke slipped his other weakened hand from its restraint. Naruto watched him as Sauske pulled his mask down and smile. "Naruto... I want you to go home and go to school tomorrow. Having you here is whenever I wake up is amazing to me, but I don't want you to throw your time away starring at me in this bed."

"I don't think I'm throwing it away. I like being here with you." Naruto smiled and squeezed Sasuke's hand tighter; Sasuke didn't return his happiness. He gave a glare dead of emotions.

"Naruto stop being a dumb ass. Go to school, don't let your grades drop and collect my homework for me." Sasuke said. His voice had receded into a horse whisper. He coughed violently for a second but stopped and swallowed whatever was trying to come up. "Besides, we both know the second school's out, you'll be right here. That's what matters so why sacrifice your college when it's not needed."

Sasuke's hand slipped to the side rail and he slowly scooted himself over in the bed closer to Naruto. His hand grabbed the side of Naruto's face as Sasuke's face lit up with a huge grin. "Good night then?"

"Yea, night _mon petit renard._" Naruto leaned in and gently touched his lover's lips with his. Naruto broke apart then kissed Sasuke's clammy forehead and smiled. "When I get out of this bed… I'm going to drag you into a dark corner."

"I don't think you'll have to drag me." Naruto smiled and felt Sasuke's hand slip away to his mask. "I really hope they cure you soon."

"Me too. I think I'm going back to sleep. I'll see you tomorrow." Sasuke said and the mask snapped back in place covering his nose and mouth. Naruto watched him for a few seconds and he was out like a light. He sighed deeply, Naruto was upset that his boyfriend was like this, upset that he had to watch him deteriorate like this.

Suddenly Naruto felt a hand on his back as Sasori smiled down at him. "Deidara was going to head back to that place on Raven Street, why don't you go with him. Nagato and I will keep good care of Sasuke."

"Right, thanks." Naruto muttered and walked out of the room to see Deidara and Itachi in a slight argument. "Well, call Kisame, it's his fuckin' house! I'm not driving Madara around!"

"Kismae's car is here, we need to return it. Or did you forget that the Hummer's here?" Itachi asked him calmly. "Anyway, it's either walk to Black Bird from here or walk to Black Bird from Kisame's house."

"Fine, I'll walk, I don't want to listen to Madara." Deidara snorted loudly and looked over at Naruto, "Are you coming with me or Itachi, mind you Itachi has Madara."

"I think I'll go with you." Naruto said than turned to Itachi. He nodded and got the same in response from the Uchiha as he followed Deidara out the door. Naruto caught up to Deidara and walked alongside him. "Do you think Nagato would really use me to get to my dad."

"He might do an 'I'm an aquatance of your son' but wouldn't harm you. He'd end up on his shit-list and that wouldn't help him get anywhere, would it?" Deidara said. He began looking around as they exited onto the road and headed for College Row. "All my years of being here, I've never been on this side of campus."

"So what did you think of it?"

"It sucks, no explosions, or Hell, even loud people." Deidara complain than quickly dismissed everything in sight. "It's too quiet and old people-ish. It's like Madara designed this half or something. It's boring, completely boring."

Deidara kept going on and his complaining soon brought Naruto to laugh until he cried, which only pissed Deidara off more and he started going off on him. They didn't pay attention as a large van passed them heading towards the old Medical building. It stopped and the passenger side door opened. "I'll probably be kicked out in a while, just go park the van, Kabuto."

"Right." Kabuto muttered as Orochimaru stepped out in his trademark white suit with a dozen roses in one hand. He began to walk up and saw as the doors opened and Itachi escorting a hands-bound Madara exited. Orochimaru smiled and walked by. "That's a nice look Madara."

"Orochimaru! Come back here…!" Marada called immediately turned and trying to get at him.

"Calm down, he's rescinded his threat against us." Itachi said and pushed him forward as Orochimaru walked into the building. He began whistling as he walked down the hall. He looked into Sasuke's room and nodded at an overly shocked Sasori and kept going. He closed his eyes for a minute and opened them to a gun barrel in his face. Nagato's arm was shaking a bit, but not enough to dodge the bullet entirely. "Hey Naggy, where's Tsu at?"

"Um… she's in the office… that one." He said nervously. Orochimaru walked by and opened the door peaking his head in. He carefully crept across the floor and found the top of her head showing from behind a page. He shoved the roses out and smiled. "Hey Tsu."

Tsunade's finger nails went through the sheet. She looked up through two aggressive and hate-filled eyes and snorted. "How the Hell did you get in here?"

"Through the front door, said hi to Madara on the way in and everything. How's everything been lately dear?" He sat down and set the flowers down next to her elbow on the desk. "It's been so fun for me, I just got back on a trip to Bermuda, and the water was so blue. It was a lovely present to myself. I should of asked if you if wanted to go, you would have loved it Tsu. The rum was excellent."

"Get out, you've done enough damage. There's a boy dying in there thanks to you." Tsunade growled standing up and pointing to the door. Orochimaru just sat there and clasped his hands together in his lap looking at her like an innocent school boy. "I'm serious Orochimaru!"

"Fine, fine." Orochimaru stood up and took two steps back ward and bowed half-way in a respectful manner. "It's nice to see you in good health Tsunade. Good luck with your young Uchiha, they tend to be temperamental."

Orochimaru vanished through the door leaving the roses on the desk. Tsuande grabbed them and was about to smash them but stopped. '_Mind as well get some use out of these.'_ Tsunade calmed down and let them rest for a minute while she fetched a beaker and filled it with water. She carefully placed the roses inside it and walked out into the hall. Nagato had taken up a new post, one with a gun right inside the doors. "He's not coming back today, I know that at least."

Tsunade walked in and set the beaker on one of Sasuke's tables. She looked over to Sasori who motioned her over and began inquiring about any drugs know to induce consciousness as Sasuke vitals were better when he was alert. She shrugged, "You mean a clinical No-Doz? It'd take a while to construct; we don't have that kind of time."

Sasori's head lowered and he scratched his hair trying to think. "Well, damn…"

---------(blAck bIrd)---------

"_Well damn…" _Kabuto smiled as Orochimaru opened up the back of the Pedovan and climbed in. "How did you know Tsunade wouldn't just trash the flowers?"

"I didn't, but still, she would have trashed them in the office where it looks like they've been discussing the alterations. They're using the serum, not the complete serum, but it looks like all we have to do afterwards is get some of Sasuke's blood before it gets broken down beyond analysis." Orochimaru smiled. He sat back and listened as Sasori kept pitching ideas at Tsunade and she kept knocking them down one at a time. "Sounds like they're stumped for now. I can't wait, think, both enternal youth and eternal life. I may have a new body but it will only extend my life for so long, now I'm getting closer than ever to being the first immortal man."

"Still won't survive a nuclear fall out." Kabuto blurted out accidentally. Both stopped starring at each other. "Maybe you should start drawing up plans for a nuclear bunker."

"I should, won't want the first immortal to die from radiation, or disintegration. It'd be horrible, and than all my research couldn't be shared with the world." Orochimaru nodded and they just kept listening until Orochimaru felt a tapping on his shoulder and saw a fist coming at his face. "What the…"

Orochimaru held his jaw as it bled a little. He was sure it was broken and would need sutures. Staying down Orochimaru looked pathedicaly at Kabuto who saw a built blond man smile at him. "Madara says hi."

Hidan jumped out of the van and slammed the doors closed. He quickly ran across the lot and onto the sidewalk where Kakuzu was waiting. "I'm surprised you actually hit him. How the Hell did you sneak up on him like that?"

"Well, to be truthful, I wanted to be a ninja growing up. Than my father left my mother, who soon became drug addicted and lost that dream in hopes of becoming a scientist to cure my mother." Hidan looked down at the ground and a silence fell over the two. Kakuzu put a hand on his partner and sighed heavily.

"That was almost touching, Hidan. Almost, if it had been the truth it would have made a great sob story." Kakuzu patted him on the shoulder and began walking away.

"Okay, so I wanted to be the head of the NRA, but I'm not a fucking politician."


	55. Lost

"You look like shit. Did you fall out of bed or something?" Suigetsu asked as Naruto walked into the kitchen from the stairwell. Naruto just shook his head and opened the fridge grabbing some food he could easily cram down his throat. It ended up being a packet of lunch meat; Naruto opened it and grabbed all of it. He quickly bit down on it and sighed. He chewed with a depressive over tone as he slid down to sit on the floor. Suigetsu turned to Karin and let out a small 'uuh…' She shook her head and grabbed Suigetsu hand in an attempt to lead him away.

Since arriving home late last night, Naruto had been depressed. Deidara had recommended some type of alcohol. Naruto however refused to even think about doing that and was adamant that he would be fine in the morning. He was wrong. Suigetsu was worried, not because Naruto was unhappy though. When Suigetsu got unhappy it usually resulted in a hospital visit for whoever got in his way; this was usually Jugo or Kisame. Suigetsu didn't know if Naruto was the same way. Karin kept tugging at his arm. "Naruto will be fine, come along."

Karin and Suigetsu had also been trying to act less like a couple when they were around Naruto for the time being. They hoped not rubbing in the fact that they had each other would help Naruto until Sasuke was out of the hospital. Naruto hadn't even noticed them as more than shadows. He was too busy remembering everything and getting pissed off about the present. He was distracted when Deidara came down the stairs; he was in one of his normal rages that usually was self-provoked by something Itachi said. "Mister I've got my last exam today. Fuckin' bastard."

Deidara stopped and looked at Naruto who was eating slowly in a trance. "Are you eating pure roast beef?" Naruto's head went up and down slowly. Deidara looked over at Karin and Suigetsu who both shook their heads. "Okay… I hope you're feeling better."

The three exited the room and headed to the basement leaving Naruto in a quiet stupor. Silently Itachi came down from the stairs and stopped in the middle of the room. His eyes glared at Naruto who looked like a helpless little frog. "Naruto, stand up."

Naruto sighed heavily as he dragged himself to his feet. He looked at Itachi before something painful hit him in the side of the face. Naruto's mouth fell open and bits of meat spewed out as he twisted compensating for the force. He reeled around and glared at Itachi. "What'd you hit me for?"

"He sick not dead. Anyway, you have school to go to. Stop moaping and go get dressed, than clean up your mess." Itachi said and looked at Naruto who was in shock. Itachi stood silent for a minute thinking of what he actually wanted to express but could only come up with: "If being depressed got us somewhere they wouldn't have created anti-depressants."

Itachi walked away somewhat at an inner conundrum if it was his place to say anything. Naruto took a second to absorb Itachi's words and than set to the tasks he assigned in the order he assigned them. Any other thoughts were lost.

-(blAck bIrd)-

"It's about time, I'm starving." Sasuke said as he saw Sasori walk over with an unlabeled can that had been punctured for a straw. "What am I drinking, beef broth?"

"Yes, actually. I wonder if it gave you ESP." Sasori said. Sasuke shook his head and explain how broths usually come in smaller cans. "Oh, I guess that will do it. So, how are you feeling? Dizzy, any nausea."

"I feel like my head's about to explode for the third day in a row. _Comment allez vous?_" Sasuke asked with a giant smile on his face. Sasori just stuck but his tongue and groaned in response. "So, Nagato said you'd be getting teenagers of your own, congrats, but I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thank you. I promise I'll be better than Madara." Sasori was of corse implying the horrible atrocities Madara had done throughout the past couple years. Sasuke however felt like being a smartass and proceeded to be one.

"You're going to buy them Spiders? Damn, you can adopt me too." Sasori smacked him upside the head. Sasuke broke out laughing and with the tubes in his stomach removed sat up and grabbed the beef broth. "Be nice, I'm hospitalized, well, as close to hospitalized as you can get without being in a hospital."

"Behave or I'll discharge you." There was a loud whooping sound as Nagato walked down the hall and popped his head in the door. "I take it Madara and Tsunade are here?"

"Ah, no… Just Tsunade, but Kisame called and he's bringing Madara in a few minutes. Our shift is up!" Nagato said happily. He disappeared from the doorway and the door opened. After a while Tsunade walked in and immdeatly walked over to check Sasuke's pulse. "You seem to be recovering well. This is dramatic improvement."

"Nagato and I completed one of Orochimaru's serums; apparently it wasn't 100% complete. The dose was meant to be fatal, I'm not sure if he knew this or not." Sasori said as he patted Sasuke on the head who was busy sipping the first food he had had in days down. "I gave him a can of beef broth, I fortified it with nurtirents; the specific analysis is on the desk there. He's out of critical condition. If we watch him he should be ale to go home soon."

"So wait, he wasn't dying due to Orochimaru giving him the serums, but that Orochimaru cut a corner? He doesn't cut corners… at all." Sasori shrugged. He grabbed his bag and put on a golfers hat. "Well, I have a custody hearing to attend to, wish me luck. He's all yours Ms. Senju."

"Good luck." Sasuke said like Sasori had been talking to him. Sasori smiled and walked casually out of the room. Tsunade looked at Sasuke and crossed her arms. Sasuke just looked up at her and began sipping on the beef broth again. Tsunade huffed deeply and just stared at him before shaking her head at Sasuke. She walked away and Sasuke pulled the straw from his mouth. "What? I didn't do something wrong did I? If I did, I apologize. I mean no offense."

"No," Tsunade said turning around with a smile on her face. She shook her head like a mother. "The way you wished Sasori good luck, it reminds me of what Naruto would have done. He must be rubbing off on you a bit."

Sasuke was taken aback and sighed; he smiled a bit as well. "I've always been a bit goofy, it just around who. Most people don't see the Uchiha family as very approachable; however I am going to probably get lots of marriage proposals due to the money. I've been waiting to get back to school to see who will talk to me now. I was approached a couple of times before I left school and got sick."

"You won't be sick again… ever. Congrats, you're immune to everything," Tsunade said flipping open the chart, "Including AIDs? Sweet Jesus, Orochimaru created the immunity to AIDs."

"Yes, but at a high cost." Madara said walking into the room with Kisame behind him. Madara set a bag of greasy fast food down on the bed and placed himself next to it. He dug out a burger that he could barely fit into his hand and held it out to Sasuke. "You need some real food, I'm not sure if you like onions or not so I had them included."

"It doesn't matter, it is solid food." Sasuke muttered and unwrapped it. He ate the burger in three bites and licked off his fingers. "Did you get me another one?"

Madara pulled the second, intended for him, out of the bag and handed it over surprised. The three watched disgusted and surprised. "How can you fit that much in your stomach at once? Never mind, we need to go over my properties so you can keep them up. I have more than a mansion, you know."

"I'll sell them, kill the cats and repaint the mansion so I can live in it with Itachi and Naruto. There." Sasuke said as he licked off his fingers again. "Kisame, can I get five more of those things?"

-(blAck bIrd)-

"He's wake, Orochimaru." Kabuto said listening in. He sat in the van with the earphones over one ear as he watched Orochimaru climb in with breakfast. He handed Kabuto a coffee and sat down on the chair across from Kabuto. "You found the immunity for AIDs. That's Nobel prize material."

"And how long before 9 comes out and kills me leaving a little note that I stole the research? It would be bad, very bad." Orochimaru said and began to gently sip on the hot coffee. He took a second, "Anything else pertinent?"

"One of the serums you injected was incomplete. It was the reason Sasuke was having such a hard time, and why they had to pull Madara out and get your research. It sounds like Nagato did most of the discovering though, he's a little more apt for it." Kabuto said and Orochimaru dropped his coffee. Orochimaru leaned back and slapped a hand over his face. "Orochimaru…"

"We're damned… Those serums were originally intended for me, he was trying to kill me. Apparently I'm not as liked as I thought I was. We need to take a back seat and watch events unfold, if 9 finds out I'm still alive we're toast." Orochimaru grabbed a doughnut and picked his coffee back up, "Luckily, I dropped it flat. You know it takes genetic research to do that every time."

"With that qualification, we can go into hiding as a pair of Birthday party clowns." Kabuto smirked and laughed to himself a bit. He stopped feeling the unease of the moment and went back to monitoring the conversations in Sasuke's room.

Orochimaru kicked the back of his chair. "That's not funny. I knew a Birthday party clown, the kids beat him with sticks. He broke his Tibia and his Fibula. It's a dangerous occupation."

-(blAck bIrd)-

It was the last block of the day, sadly it had just begun. Naruto had tried to say everything to excuse himself in his last block, but it didn't work. '_I broke my throat. I hear a cry of distress. If I say you look fat can I go to detention?'_ He knew Kakashi would just sat going crazy if Naruto said anything like that. At least he got the general reason why Naruto was distraught, the desk next to him was empty. Kakashi assigned the class two pages to read of poetry by some crazed cat lady and took the time to bash Naruto on the head. "Sasuke still in the hospital?"

"Yeah, I was going to see him after school. Oh, why'd you hit me on the head? You just don't hit people on the head!" Naruto argued quickly. "I'll get my lawyer in here and he'll blow you up!"

"Lawyers don't blow people up, they sue people."

"Not mine." Naruto muttered rubbing his head. "Being mean to me… I'll tell Jiraiya."

Naruto assume Kakashi smirked under his scarf as he scoffed a bit in good humor. He went around back to his desk and pulled out his assignment book. He had been keeping all of Sasuke's grades open, and it left a long streak of unused space at the bottom of the page. Kakashi sighed and read today's assignment. "All right, for the next week and a half we are going to write a fake newsletter. It can be on anything dealing with, and you have to keep this in mind, anything to do with the Renaissance. To start this we are going to be writing a four hundred to five hundred word story about chivalry, honorable love, and being happy. You must set this in an earlier time, preferably King Arthur era. You have the entire block, if you finish early, you can leave early."

Kakashi nodded at Naruto who smiled and quickly dug out a notebook and a pencil and began scribbling away. Everyone else in the class took out scrap paper and began plotting. Naruto wanted to get out though, he didn't need to plot. He was in love so he just let the love write the words for him.

Twenety minutes passed in the class, everything was silent until Naruto stood up and handed Kakashi several pieces of paper. Kakashi glanced over the barely legible words and was some what impressed. "I already went through and revised it. Can I go?"

"Yep, remember to get your late assignments out of the book for Sasuke." Naruto nodded and quickly wrote down what Sasuke missed. Naruto grabbed his bag to shove things away and exited the room happy he could go and see Sasuke. He dashed through the hall and down the stair as he took the teacher's parking lot exit. Outside the door he was caught by a big hand. "Where are you off too? 8th block is only just beginning."

"Kakashi said I could leave early, Azuma. Please, I want to go see Sasuke, he's been in the hospital the past two days." Naruto begged. Azuma removed his hand to scratch his head. He sighed than waved a hand permitting Naruto to leave. "You're awesome! Thanks!"

Naruto saluted and took off in a dead sprint towards the college. After a few minutes he was on campus and dodging students in order to get to the old medical building. Naruto slowed to a walking pace as he went up the steps and opened the door. Kisame was playing the doorman and looked at him for a minute. "School's not out yet."

"Finished early." Naruto said walking past him into the room. Sasuke was up and smiling as he talked to his brother who sat at the bottom of the bed. Naruto took a step in and knocked on the door. Both turned to him, smiled and Sasuke threw his pillow at him. "You're supposed to be at school, you're the one that does that. Remember?"

"I was at school; Kakashi said we could go when our work was finished." Naruto said as he walked over to the bedside and promptly hit Sasuke over the head with his own pillow before he set it down on the bed. Sasuke and Naruto got into a brief raspberry war before Sasuke decided to cheat and caught Naruto in a headlock. Sasuke ignored Naruto struggling to get free and turned back to his brother. "So anyways, what's going to happen with Madara?"

"Well, you're not completely finished yet. They are still working out the last little pieces. Even though you are not dying anymore, you're not healthy yet." Itachi said looking at the two. "Though it sure does seem like you are. Are you going to keep him there all day?"

"I haven't bought a collar for him yet. He might get lost." Sasuke smiled and laughed at him. He let Naruto go finally and watched as Naruto regained his balance. Sasuke just kept smiling up at him until Naruto bashed his face with the pillow.

"I feel better." Naruto said at Itachi. The elder Uchiha nodded muttering 'I know the feeling.' Sasuke took the pillow and tossed it on the other side of the room. "So, how's it feel being genetically modified?"

"Faster, better, stronger. That whole deal. It also feels like I could eat an entire water buffalo." Sasuke said grabbing his stomach. "I think I might, I have the money. If Itachi will give it to me, that is."

"You can settle for cows." Itachi said promptly. He stood up stretching and checked the clock on the wall. "I have to go and take my last exam; wish me luck on remembering everything on eastern cultures."

"Japan has ninjas." Sasuke muttered. Itachi rolled his eyes walking out of the room. "I think he was hoping I would have matured more mentally through this experience, I however feel that this experience should have just made me more skittish."

"Did it?" Sasuke shook his head. Naruto climbed up next to Sasuke who moved over. They laid back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling until Naruto felt Sasuke's hand move, a crooked finger beginning to run across his stomach. Naruto looked to him thinking he wanted attention; Sasuke just stared straight up with a warm little smile on his face.

"So, after this… no more hospital visits?" Naruto asked very cautiously. Sasuke could see he was kind of worried they'd end up in a situation like this again.

"No, no more hospital visits." Sasuke did take a minute and than finally turned his head. "I have a speed boat… And I'm going to take it out doing 100 miles an hour, and it's going to be awesome."

"You're going to crash my speed boat." Madara walked in the room. Naruto wanted to jump up or something, but Sasuke's finger was still tracing its small arc on his abs. "Konan cleared all the cats out, she found them good homes. Looks like the mansion is all yours, but where am I going to stay…"

-(blAck bIrd)-

"Hi, this is Dean Senju, I'll be frank, Madara is in our old medical building. It's where we've bee treating his nephew, it's why he escaped. He wanted to help but we don't want him." Tsunade listened for a minute and heard specific instructions to keep him for another five minutes. "No problem."

"What did the police say?" Deidara asked. He had carefully explained that as long as they leave out who sprung him from jail, it will make him seem like he planned everything.

"Five minutes."

"So we just… sit around." Deidara jumped up to sit on the desk and waited. "Wow, I'm board already."

"Here, go buy yourself a burger or something." Tsunade said handing him a five. Deidara smiled and took off out the door appeased.


	56. Out and In and Burning

"Hey Madara, I think someone's here for you." Deidara said popping his head into Sasuke's room. Upon seeing the food Sasuke immediately asked for a bite of the burger. Deidara looked at the food cautiously he held the burger out and watched Sasuke lean foreword. Deidara pulled the burger back and smiled. He taunted Sasuke for a minute who was about to get up out of bed, however Madara assured him he would get more food later. Deidara stuck out his tongue and smiled. "No! Go get your own food, this is my food. No food for you."

Deidara took another bite and watched as Madara slowly got up and walked out of the room, pausing briefly not to push his luck with Sasuke. Deidara bolted into the room; he spun as he grabbed the door to shut it behind him. He locked it and than grabbed an old dull-beige metal table to help block the way. "Naruto, get off the bed and go out the window, head over to Jiraiya. Here, don't forget your bag."

Deidara picked up the black and orange backpack then tossed it to Naruto who stood up. Naruto quickly whipped his bag on as Deidara looked out the door's window to see Madara starring back angrily. Madara turned away and Deidara sighed in relief. Sasuke sat up and looked at the lawyer but grabbed his boyfriend's arm, "Wait, Naruto. What the Hell is going on…?"

Sasuke didn't need to finish the sentence. The loud speaker of a police cruiser came over the air followed by someone's voice very clearly: 'Madara Uchiha, come out with your hands behind your head and we will not open fire.' Sasuke released Naruto arm and rubbed it gently. Deidara sighed pointing upwards like that's where the order came from, "That is what's up. It is my legal counsel that counts right now, and letting Naruto not be involved in any of this sounds a lot easier. Go!"

"Right, call me later!" Naruto said and quickly pecked Sasuke on the forehead as he opened a window and jumped out. Naruto landed crouched on his feet and took off running straight back for the tree line; the closer he was to it the farther he was from the police.

Deidara walked over slowly and closed the window locking it after Naruto had exited. Deidara sat down on the floor, half a burger going neglected in his hand, and watched as Sasuke turned in the bed and touched the pad of his foot to the cool floor and slowly slid off. He grasped the bed for stability and reached over grabbing the food. Sasuke quickly sat back down the rest of him falling down. He ate the burger and looked up at Deidara. "When someone hasn't eaten for two days prior, you give them your fucking food."

-(black bird)-

Tsunade watched him run across the lawn from the window of the room she had barricaded herself in. She sighed and went back to work with Kisame. "Take these and run, it's more important to keep that work safe, do you understand. We can't have these files falling into public hands, we don't need 500 wanna-be Orochimarus popping up."

"God, that'd be horrible." Kisame said opening up a window. He dug in his pockets and produced keys to his Hummer. "I'll call and tell Sasori when the files are safe and locked away. I'll tell him to relay the message. Here, give the key's to Sasuke, tell him to dive it to Black Bird."

"Okay." Tsunade said not questioning what Black Bird was thinking it was a gang from earlier reports. She shoved them away in her pockets, patted them quickly and watched Kisame bolt to the tree line. She quickly closed the window and sat down awaiting a knock from the police.

-(blAck bIrd)-

"Deidara, I'm going to kill you." Madara muttered as he slowly put his hands behind his head the fingers interlocked. Madara bit his lip, snorted gruffly through his nose and stepped outside. He had got three steps down against the pavement when two sets of hands grabbed him forcing him down to the ground. Madara was cuffed and dragged to his feet like anyone else. He was shoved in a police car, the door shut tight behind him. "God damn it."

The police quickly went into the building and knocked. Tsundae and Deidara un-barricaded the door and opened it to be swarmed with questions. Both however remained adamant that they were simply helping Sasuke, whom Deidara refused to let speak or be spoken to. After a half an hour of lawyer-ing, Deidara had managed to get the police away from both Sasuke and Tsunade and they were left alone to get Sasuke out of bed finally.

"I can… somewhat walk." Sasuke said as his grip around the bed frame tightened. After a few seconds he stood up fine and stretched his legs. Smiling the Uchiha grabbed his bag and thanked Tsunade on his way down to the bathroom. He quickly closed the door, dropped his bag of clothes, and rushed to the urinal. He sighed in relief at going to the bathroom for himself for the first time in days.

He finished, washed his hands and looked into the mirror. Sasuke's eyes were blood red; the lines of earthen tones over lapping in an intricate form, darkened spaces orbited the pupil. The dripping of the faucet woke him from the wonder of his own eyes. "Maybe Tsunade can order me blue contacts."

Sasuke stripped off his old clothes and put on some new ones, looking as dark as ever. He quickly left the bathroom and walked into the room where Deidara was saying his goodbye to Tsunade. Deidara stood up and looked at Sasuke. "There's press outside, I was going to escort you to the hummer, and Kisame left the keys for you. We're to go to Black Bird."

"You take the hummer and go to Black Bird, my boyfriend's across campus whom you kicked out. He's a little more important to me than Kisame's hummer." Sasuke bowed to both of them. He rose slowly and smiled. "I owe my life to you, plus Nagato and Sasori. Thank you."

"You're welcome." Deidara said thinking Sasuke was talking to him until he scoffed and walked out of the building into a cluster of reporters. He pushed through with microphones and cameras being shoved in his face. "What was Madara's motive for escape?" "What sickness befell you?" "Is it true that…"

Sasuke grabbed the microphone and looked straight at the little woman who was holding it, he face looked up at his and she paled. Sasuke whistled loudly letting the microphone go. "I'm going to say this once, and I hope your paying attention. Leave me alone. If you do not leave me alone, and leave my friends alone, I'm going to call that a major invasion of privacy. I will sue you until I own your stations, do you understand? And yes, I can do that, now fuck off."

Sasuke pushed out of the slightly shocked crowd and waved at Deidara who hopped in the Hummer after listening to the speech, making sure nothing out of the ordinary was involved. Sasuke walked openly, out in public, towards the Lit building and walked inside avoiding glares of people around him. He turned to his left and knocked on the door to Jiraiya's office. After a minute and hearing 'I don't know, hid!' the door opened to have Jiraiya in a nice suit look down at Sasuke. Jiraiya opened the door the rest of the way putting his finger to his mouth. He led Sasuke in then pointed to beneath his desk. Sasuke soft in movements climbed up on the desk completely silent. He gathered his breath than ducked his head down. "Boo!"

"Ah… Sasuke!" Naruto said and he scrambled out of the little hiding place. Naruto got to his feet only to be grabbed by Sasuke and flung into his grasp. Sasuke wrapped his arms around Naruto tightly and set his head softly at the base of his neck. Sasuke inhaled his scent of gum, shaving cream and the sweetened scent of sweat. His grip tightened against Naruto's back and his knuckles went white. "Sasu…ke?"

"Hi Naruto." Sasuke muttered softly barely looking over Naruto's shoulder with his crimson eyes. He constricted further and felt Naruto's hands grab his back squeezing him. Sasuke let go a bit to stare at Naruto and smile. He leaned in and whispered: "You know… I should drag you into a dark corner."

"Jugo wants to have a party to welcome you home." Naruto whispered back. Sasuke made a disappointed click with his tongue and sat down gingerly on the desk. "I don't like parties, Jugo knows that. Maybe I can sneak into the house from the ceiling window."

"Suigetsu mentioned that he already bought something for it, something big and expensive… and he was going to invite his girlfriend over." Naruto mentioned. His head swiveled behind Sasuke to Jiraiya who was just standing in the doorway with his back turned; he was observing the girl's walking by in short skirts. "And we should get Jiraiya to his desk before he starts hitting on 18 year olds."

"Probably." Sasuke got up interlocking his fingers with Naruto and walked over by Jiraiya. Naruto tapped on Jiriaya's shoulder and the perverted English Literature Dean snapped to attention with a large startled jump. Jiraiya composed himself by coughing and adjusting his tie like a respectable member of society. "Office is all yours."

"We'll be over for poker night. Later Jiraiya." Naruto waved as he and Sasuke walked hand in hand outside the building to the bustling campus. They were oblivious to the cameras taping them from yards away, Sasuke noted them quickly but dismissed the crews: "They're always trying to get a story. They should do one on how annoying new stations can be."

"Well, it's their job and you just happened to be the inheritor of a currently famous mass murderer. It'll die down in a month or so, just give it time. Hey, it's better than being dead." Naruto said shrugging slightly. Sasuke's phone went off, the thing was Sasuke's phone was in Naruto's pocket. Sasuke looked at Naruto who quickly handed over the phone, "I was out of minutes and Suigetsu kept wanting updates."

"It's okay." Sasuke looked at the iPhone screen and saw the picture of sharpened teeth with 'Piranha' over the top. Sasuke rolled his eyes before he answered sarcastically. "I died, get over it… We're walking home from the campus, what are you up to? You didn't destroy my room did you?"

"No, you asshole, your room's fine." Suigetsu asked a little bitter. "Jugo's been bummed because he finished his tattoo last night and you weren't there to see it. Also, you're boyfriend's not a depressing mess anymore is he? When did you get out?"

"About twenty minutes ago, after fighting through a hoard of police and new crews." Sasuke looked at Naruto who was walking besides him smiling. "I don't think he's that bad anymore. If something happened to Karin, you know you would become a depressing mess. What's up with Karin?"

"I don't know, I was going to see her." Suigetsu hung up his phone to point two fingers at the back of Naruto and Sasuke's heads. Sasuke turned around and sighed. He hung up his phone and shoved it away in a pocket. "She got a job yesterday. Slings hamburgers or something, I was going to put in the world's largest order and see how she handles it."

"For being her boyfriend, that's kind of an asshole thing to do." Naruto commented. Suigetsu shrugged and grabbed both of them around the shoulders making them walk with him. Naruto than noticed something, "Hey Suigetsu, why are you on campus? School doesn't get out for another minute."

"Isn't it obvious?" Sasuke asked and pointed to Suigetsu's wet hair, swim trunks with a tee-shirt and then told him about the chlorine smell. "Suigetsu's been up here with the swim team. Speaking of don't you have your meet in an hour or so?"

"I do, and my back is good enough, I was able to get in the water with the freshmen and show them some tricks instead of just trying to explain them. Hopefully, we'll place better than 12th this year for freshman. My freshman year we placed third, all thanks to me."

"He likes to go on about that." Sasuke noted. After a while the three friends arrived on college row and went into a small restaurant that was nearly empty. Behind the counter was a red head that went sour seeing them. Karin was about to tell them not to make trouble when Suigetsu began digging through his pockets. After a second he produced a small crushed flower that was decently intact. Sasuke nudged Naruto, "See, he only talks a lot of smack. Plus, he knows he doesn't have time to eat all that food."

"He'd attempt to eat that much food?" Sasuke nodded and Naruto was taken a back, somewhat impressed. Suigetsu quickly leaned over the counter and pecked Karin of the check before turning to Sasuke and Naruto. "Not a word. I have to go to my meet, tell Jugo I'll be home around five, five-thirty."

"Right." Sasuke mused watching the kappa walk out of the burger joint having done something completely out of his character. He walked up to Karin and waved. "I'm all better."

"Good for you, I'm all tired and have three hours of work." Karin muttered and checked to see if her boss was around. He was off in the back and out of ear shot. "I wouldn't eat here, the food's not that good. Go to the diner and bring me back cake."

"You just want cake." Naruto said. Karin flashed anger quickly making Naruto step back. "Alright, but, isn't it bad if we bring you cake. Aren't you supposed to show some loyalty to the job, pride in your work."

"I am a cashier at a burger joint, it's not even McDonalds… I couldn't give a shit. Hey don't laugh at me." Karin said quiet but strong. Sasuke and Naruto were both huffing trying not to burst out laughing. They just turned and left before they actually did. Outside they calmed down and joined hands and Sasuke began leading them down College Row. "Hey, Sasuke, where are we going?"

"I'm going to see Orochimaru, actually, if he's not home I'm just going to kick in his door. If he is, I do have a couple of questions." Sasuke said and walked down the street until he encountered a fire truck passing by him. He dropped Naruto's hands and rushed down the street to see the white house with purple accents going up in flames. "Holy shit."

"Oh, we started it." Orochimaru said sliding in next to Sasuke. "I'm very upset over it. Such a waste of a good house you know, but she had to go. So, all better are we?"

"Um, yea." Naruto finally caught up and grabbed onto Sasuke's arms. Sasuke broke his arm free and quickly shoved Naruto behind him just in case Orochimaru would start anything.

"I see it has taken affect, you're running much faster than he is now." Orochimaru pulled out one of his cards and a pen. "I don't have a home phone now, so if you or Itachi needs to contact me to chat, tea, or if an organ fails you need to call my cell."

Orochimaru held out the card and Sasuke took it. Orochimaru disappeared before them and was across the street pretending to freak out next to Kabuto. Naruto shook his head, "That guy is seriously creepy. Seriously."

-(black bird)-

"So, a special cell! I'm impressed, guard walk by every 15 minutes, reinforced walls, and no outside walls. You really went up and over the call for me." Madara yelled at the guard who had just walked by. He was laid out on the bed back in his orange jump suit, the mask resting comfortably on his face. "You know, you mind as well talk to me, it's not like your really going to stay silent for your shift, that'd be annoying."

Dead silence followed him. Madara sighed and rolled over. Being back in jail he had nothing to do: no cell mate and no outside sources were allowed in. He was even told earlier that his mail would be read to him and was not allowed inside the cell. He would have no visitors and would not be allowed out with the rest of the prisoners. Madara was finally learning why the phrase 'like a prison' is so terrible.


	57. Toilet Trained

**Sorry this chapter was so late! I still got it up this week though... Enjoy!**

Sasori itched at his neck until his skin was a bright red under the collar of his white button up shirt. He assumed it would be proper to wear a suit to a court room hearing, and he wasn't particularly involved in the law like Deidara was. When he walked in the room he knew he was over dressed; the only person better dressed was the judge in her offical garb. Sasori sat down next to Gaara who was busy crushing his skull cap in his hands waiting for the judge to call the courts to order. "You know, you don't have to do this. Kankuro said he would take the year off of school and we could support ourselves off jobs."

"That's nonsense." Gaara's head dropped a little. "Listen, I know about loosing a parent and afterwards you don't want to be taken care of because that was their job, but your a child and Kankuro needs to be in college. That's his place and yours is a place of safety."

"I... I know." Gaara's voice dipped into a whisper and he sighed. Slightly unintentional Gaara leaned his head onto Sasori's shoulder and sighed. "But, I'll lose kankuro. I'll be going with you and he's going with great grandma Chiyo."

"It's only for four months, you can survive that. We'll get you a gameboy or something to bide your time while you wait." Gaara made a small amused noise and sat up as the gavel hit the base. The court came to order and the judge smiled out at them. Sasori cast an eye over at Chiyo and Kankuro who was helping her up.

"This court is in order. First case, Kankuro, I'm sorry to hear of your and Gaara's mother's passing." Kankuro nodded and thanked her solomn in tone. "In accordance with your mother's will, your custodey was to be given to you Uncle, Sasori. However Chiyo, you have prompted to take him instead which was agreeded upon by Sasori so he may complete his senior year. Is this correct?"

"Yes, that's right. He's only got a couple months left, I and my brother would be happy to take him, he's such a good kid." Chiyo said and smiled through her wrinkles. She nodded at Kankuro and sighed. "Anyway, he'll be 18 soon and off to college, why make him move only to move right?"

"That's right." The judge said slightly amused. "In your case custody is granted, you will recieve paperwork from the clerk after the trial. To the case of Gaara, in accordance with his mother's wishes he will be adopted by his Uncle Sasori. Is there any changes with this desicion?"

"No your honor." Sasori said clearly. The judged nodded.

"In your case custody is granted. You will pick up your paperwork with the clerk and recieve information for taking them to your county. My deepest sympathies to your family and the best of luck moving foreword." The judge's gavel hit the base again and Sasori sighed.

"Is everything okay?" Gaara asked as he was beginning to follow Sasori out. Sasori stopped in the middle of isle and turned to Chiyo. "Mom, is it okay if Gaara finishes up the week here. I have to clear out the room he'll be staying in, my live-in student has been using it as a make-shift office."

"I didn't know you got a live-in student. How intreseting, now you'll have two! Well, I'll go get our papers and we can go to the pizza parlor." Chiyo said and shuffled over to the clerk asking for both their papers. Chiyo came back handed a stack to Sasori. "We have to sign the top sheet and give it back."

Sasori quickly pulled out a black-ink pen then scribbled his signature down. He handed off the pen to Chiyo. His phone rang and Sasori began thanking himself in his head that it hadn't gone off during the court. "Hello? Well of course he's not going to listen to you, he's 16. Well talk to Itachi about it, I'm busy, I'm with my family. I'm sorry you don't have any family Deidara but go do something else. Go study for your bar exam."

"Was that your live-in student? He's in law?" Gaara asked. Sasori nodded and took his mother's paper to the clerk. "I don't like lawyers."

"You don't like anything." Kankuro muttered and punched him in the arm. He smiled and put an arm around Gaara. "You haven't smiled since mom died, do you really think that happy little woman would want to look down on such a depressing sad sack?"

"Kankuro be nice, young man. I'll make you scrap my bunyons!" Chyio announced loudly and hit him with her cane. "You need to behave, I already have to put up with that idiot at home."

"Mom, be nice." Sasori said coming back. He pointed a finger at Chiyo and they exchanged glares. Chiyo broke out laughing and motioned them to the door. Sasori leaned over to Gaara and whispered. "She fine at holidays but living with her is Hell."

-(black bird)-

"So I was walking down the street and this blonde with huge fucking tits comes around the corner so of course I stare. The bitch notices and starts going off on me. I looked at her and said plainly 'Listen, if you don't want people to stare, cover up your fucking chest.' Her sister over hears this and starts agreeing with me. And that's why I was late." Hidan explained to Kakuzu trying to get off the hook for taking an hour to get the fast food. Hidan had promptly returned to his and Kakuzu's apartment and was attacked. "If you saw those tits you'd stare too."

"That big huh? Well give me my food." Kakuzu commanded of the masochist. Hidan surrendered the bag and watched his partner take the bag and pull out his food. "Next time just knock the woman unconsious and bring her back here, you caused me to waste minutes trying to contact you."

"Haha, funny." Hidan said as Kakuzu returned the bag by throwing the food at him. Hidan grabbed it mid air and sat down on the floor eating as fast as he could. Angry, he bit the burger like it had done something to him. After a second there was a knock at the door; Hidan looked over at Kakuzu expecting him to do something. "You pay for it, it's your responsibility."

"Lazy bastard." Kakuzu muttered walking by Hidan and smacking him on the head. Kakuzu opened the door to be grabbed by slender white fingers around the collar. Kakuzu than noticed he was lifted in the air. Orochimaru smiled and walked Kakuzu back into the apartment shoving him against the wall. Orochimaru closed the door and reached behind him grabbing Hidan to push him against the wall as well. "You..."

"You got your nose fixed, good for you." Hidan said happily. Orochimaru laughed in a light manner and lowered them to the ground for more comfortablility. "I would like to stress it was Kakuzu's idea to punch you in the face, and he made me do it."

"You're such a little bitch..." Kakuzu attempted to punch Hidan in the face however Orochimaru caught his fist with his foot. Kakuzu turned and looked at the snake man. "To what do we owe this pleasure? Madara's in jail, permanantly."

"Oh, really? I'd like to talk to you two, as guys. I brought cigars and voldka." Orochimaru set them down and produced both of the items in question from his jacket. He let out a small little 'hm?' and waited for an answer.

"Are those cuban? Oh Hell yes!" Hidan said grabbing the box. He sat down on the couch and opened them. He raised one to his nose and smelled it. "So, what are we talking about here?"

"A little business proposition." Orochimaru hissed. He smiled and gave the bottle of voldka to Kakuzu than sat down in the recliner crossing his legs. "You see, my assistant and I have upset a rather important man and he tried to have me killled, I however have back ups of my research and a substansital sum of money kept in a Swiss bank account. I can get both easily and am willing to share with Madara, paying wages."

"I like it so far, but what about this guy?" Kakasu asked sitting down next to Hidan giving him the alcohol. "We don't need anymore danger, we've already got the cops after us, we've got the feds after us. We can't be involved in something that will put us out there."

"He is not a public figure, more of a dark legend who doesn't want to come out." Orochimaru said. "All I ask is for lab help, and I need Quantity for it. In return, I'll share some of my... unique qualities with you. I'm sure Madara will agree."

"Can't get to him, his's basically in the center of the prison surrounded by constant guard." Kakuzu said squishing Orchimaru's plan. Hidan sneered and called him an asshole under his breath for being such a down. Orochimaru crossed his legs and sat foreword with an evil smile on his face that made the two get nervous.

"I am a highly genetically modified scientific genius. Are you trying to tell me I can't do something?"

-(black bird)-

"Twenty-three cats, that man really was alone." Konan commented as she cringed at the fact of taking twenty-three cats to the animal shelter explaining that someone just dumped them in her back yard and a crate. Luckily after paying a hefty fee for each cat they were taken in by the shelter to find homes. "I think it's illegal to have twenty-three cats in this county, wouldn't you think?"

"Madara caring over a minor civil infraction of having too many cats? You're a laugh roit, Konan." Nagato huffed as they entered their small apartment to have Nagato's small dog walk up and wag his tail at him. Nagato smiled and bent over picking him up. "Hey Pein, who's a good boy."

"Who chewed through the bag of dog food and devoured half of it." Konan muttered quickly after a glance at the kitchen floor. "At least he's not getting in the trash."

"He's only a puppy. Look at Pein." Nagato held the dog up next to his face and made a pouting face. Konan rolled her eyes as she pressed the button on the answering machine. "_You have two new messages. First message: 12:34 pm. Nagato, it's Kakuzu. We need to figure out our finances if we need to flee to Mexico. Hidan's thinking a little more proactively and suggested moving into South America. Call me back as soon as possible. Second message: 1:52 pm. It's Hidan, call now._"

"That was twelve minutes ago." Konan noted. Nagato sighed and picked up the house phone and dialed the vicous man's house phone. "Make sure to mention to him we can't 'call now' if we aren't home."

"Hidan... We're what? No, do not join forces... What do you mean the three of you are on your way over?" 'Three?' Konan mouthed confused. "Stop swearing... He hung up. Hidan and Kakuzu agreed to work with Orochimaru and they are now on their way over here."

"We have to call Itachi."

"He's in class."

"Than Sasori..."

"He's in court..."

"Sasuke! I don't know, the kid leads his little gang and it'll get to Itachi pretty quickly, if we would call Deidara he'd give us some legal stand point and Kisame's not a decision maker at all." Konan suggested. Nagato took a breath and sighed as Pein cuddled to his feet. "I don't have his number though."

"We can reach him through Kisame. Pein, go get momma! Go get her!" The little dog immediately ran put to Konan pawing on her leg for attention. Nagato smiled and dialed Kisame. He disappeared for a moment and left Konan to attend to the dog. She picked it up and looked at it. "I don't get it, how can you be so cute and so annoying at the same time."

She cuddled him in her arms and petted him lightly until Nagato came out of the kitchen with an awkward expression on his face. He held the phone to his ears and paced uptil he smiled. "Hi, this is Nagato... I asked Kisame... Don't be angry at him, I have very good reason. Since your brother is tied up and you are experienced in this now... I know... I know... Shut up, Orochimaru is planning on teaming back up with Madara, what do you want me to do? Yes I am asking you. Because you can make desicions. Alright, thank you. I know, stop reminding me you little brat or I'll throttle you. Don't tell Itachi! Listen just inform him of what's happening and what you told us to do."

Nagato pulled the phone away from his face, clicked the button and set the phone down. Konan smiled and laughed while holding the puppy. "Oh, ho, ho. Did he rattle your cage a bit?"

"He's worse than Madara sometimes I swear... We're to find out as much as we can with out compromising and than report back to him."

"To him, so he's in charge now?"

"I guess. I'm not holding an argument with him, he's better modified than I am. I don't know if i could survive if he tried to kill me." Nagato shook his head and sat down on the edge of the couch calling Pein to him. He brought the dog on his lap adn cuddled him tightly. "I'm going to hide Pein in our room. I don't want anything happening to him. "

"You're such a baby about that dog, Nagato." Konan said as the doorbell went off. She sighed and waved Nagato to shove the door away quickly. She waited a second then lesiurly went down the hall and opened the door to an adgitated Hidan. "Did you break my doorbell yet?"

"No, but if you hadn't taken you sweet, damn time. Jesus, move, I want in, it's way to fuckin' hot out there." Hidan said and pressed by Konan. He entered the apartment's living room as Nagato came out of the bedroom throwing a new shirt over his head. "Sup?"

Hidan crashed on the couch like he lived there and watched as Kakuzu entered the apartment followed by Orochimaru than Konan closing the door nervously. Kakuzu nodded to Nagato adn sat down calmly next to Hidan. Orochimaru laughed lightly as he walked in. "You act like I'm holding you all hostage, you're free to unitive me into your home if you feel uncomfortable, Nagato, Konan."

"Spit out what you want and do it quickly." Konan snapped out of the corner. "We never even invited you in, however, we can't really keep you out knowing what you know, can we?"

"True, blue, true." Orochimaru said. He smiled and looked around. "All I want is my revenge, and to do that, I need your help."

Suddenly the toilet flushed and they all stopped except Konan who smacked her forehead. She pointed a finger at Nagato who began laughing. "You toilet trained your dog?"

"Well, yeah. It's an apartment, what do you expect? We don't have a yard after all." Nagato said and quickly went into the bedroom. They heard coos of 'who's a good boy' and some small, chipper barking.


	58. But I Don't Want To

"But I don't want a party." Sasuke said for the ninth time looking at Deidara who was sent to guard the door to the Black Bird basement while Jugo was preparing the festivities. Inside the basement was Jugo, his new girlfriend Tayuya, Naruto whom Jugo had ripped from Sasuke's arms, and Kisame. Jugo had bullied them into throwing him a huge party, which Sasuke was highly against. Sasuke had other things in mind but having Naruto tell him to behave, he was going to. "I don't _want_ a party."

"Sorry, he wants to celebrate and he's a very large man. I'm going to do what I'm told. I have to keep my looks about me." Deidara swished his hair to one side and smiled. "You know, not every one get to look this nice."

"Yeah, I bet your future mail-order bride will be pleased." Deidara's face wiped clean as he gave a loud 'hrumph'. Sasuke sighed and decided to try and plead why he especially didn't want to go to the party. "Uh, can you just tell him how uninterested I am in this? I haven't been laid in days; all I want is my boyfriend back and access to my room. Is that so fuckin' hard?"

"For the sake of argument, yes, it is. Be nice or I'll call Itachi." Deidara said pulling out his phone and dangling it in front of Sasuke's face. "Anyway, you can wait an hour more, they worked hard at this, or I can call Itachi."

"He's taking his test, he won't know for three hours, that's plenty of time for an alibi on why a dead lawyer was crucified in the street." Sasuke tilted his neck slowly eyes not leaving Deidara's eyes, his neck cracked in a series loud enough to fill the room.

"Are you threatening me? I will blow you up." Deidara muttered quietly shoving his phone away. They exchanged glares with an intense fury. Both wanted to kill the other. "I still have a gun, what do you have kid?"

"Oh, I'm shaking. Do you really _think_ you can hurt me?" Sasuke mused back nearly laughing at the comment. Deidara tried not to take that into consideration but Sasuke's knuckles cracked and Deidara broke.

"I hate you." Deidara muttered crossing his arms. He hissed at the victorious Uchiha and scowled as low as he could. "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, you know that you stupid ass little punk. I hate…"

"Oy, Sasuke c'mon." Naruto said bursting through the door knocking Deidara over. Sasuke smiled at Deidara as he was pulled inside the basement by the anxious blonde. Sasuke was greeted by his friends and a large cake that had its own personal cake stand. Jugo smiled and waved. "Welcome back!"

"That is the biggest cake I have ever seen in my life." Sasuke said examining the mammoth structure of white that sat close to the floor. In letters a foot tall was 'WELCOME BACK' in gold and blue. "What are its dimensions?"

"9 by 11 feet. I didn't know who'd be here so I ordered it as big as they could make it Took a pay check but that's fine. Save us on buying cake at the diner all the time, right?" Jugo said then scratched his head nervously. "I guess I got over zealous."

"Yea, just a bit. Good news is we won't need to go out for cake for a month, and we can go swimming in it." Naruto noted to Sasuke. Sasuke just smiled and wrapped his arm around Naruto staring at the cake. "Bad news is we'll be fat, terribly, terribly horrendously fat."

-(black bird)-

"What the Hell Itachi." Sasori said looking at the package that had been sent to him from the county courthouse. He paced with the phone in his hand, which slightly worried Gaara. Even though he could have stayed the week with his great grandmother he had elected to come along any, taking a well needed rest from school. Gaara sat on the couch and watch Sasori's face until he calmed down. "Well that's all fine and dandy, but warn me before you and Deidara get any more 'ideas'. You never know what will come out of it. Yes that is fine. You know he has Madara's black credit card. I didn't know he aquired one either. I'll speak with both of you later, that'd be fine."

Sasori sighed and sat down on the couch next to Gaara shoving the paperwork back in the envelope. Gaara tried to read the main contents of the letter but his eyes were tired and could only make out 'Family Court Circuit – Official Paperwork.' "What's wrong?"

"Lots of things…" There was a knock at the door before Deidara burst in and waved with a large box in his hands. Sasori sighed. "Here's one of them. Gaara, this is Deidara, he'll be moving out soon. Deidara, this is my nephew Gaara."

"Sorry about your mom, here's cake. That'll help." Gaara, slightly confused, took the box and opened it up to find two huge pieces of cake inside. Sasori asked Deidara to explain why he had cake. "Jugo got Sasuke a welcome home cake that could roughly feed my entire graduating class… We have more if you want."

"Um, thank you… but no thanks. This is plenty." Gaara said watching Deidara carefully. Deidara muttered 'suit yourself' and walked down to 'his' room telling Sasori he was going to crash for a couple hours until Itachi got to yell at Sasuke for being mean to him. The door shut behind the law student and Gaara looked at his uncle. "You never said the student living with you was the Uchiha's lawyer."

"Gaara, off it." Sasori said pointing a stern hand at his new ward. "Just because the media says something does not make it true. You should know this, you were in newspaper. Deidara's a… he's a good guy, which is important. Not a good person but a good guy."

Gaara didn't look convinced which lead Sasori to sigh and take the cake from him to put it away into the kitchen. After a second or two Gaara scratched the few chin hairs he had than sighed. "So, when is he moving out?"

"I was planning on telling him he's moving sometime time tomorrow. I don't know if he'll like it or not, but he's in the room I was going to give to you." Sasori said wandering in the kitchen. He came back a second later and handed Gaara a refrigerated coffee. "You are addicted to these things right?"

"Well, coffee in general, but yes. Thank you." Gaara took the can and popped it open. He chugged half of the drink and pulled it away taking a breath. "I was running low on caffeine. I'm not used to going without it for long."

"I guess I'll have to find where I put my coffee maker. I guess you'll need it." Gaara nodded and watched as Sasori scratched his chin in the same nervous way he had. "So… I was going to have Itachi and Sasuke Uchiha over tonight, we have to have a discussion on what's happening with Sasuke's custody now that Madara's in jail."

"Okay." Gaara said in a flat tone. He stared at his uncle in an un-amused way. "What do you want me to say here? Should I go somewhere tonight or something?"

"You're welcome to stay, this is you're home now after all. I just don't want any…"

"You want me to stay out of it. I can do that." Gaara said uncomfortably. He slammed the other half of the coffee and glared forward.

-(black bird)-

The fourth time Itachi called Sasuke's iPhone Sasuke thought it was hilarious. He had propped his phone up on the bed stand against a light in the shape of the leaning tower so they could look over at it. Sasuke figured if there was a prominent danger, it could wait fifteen minutes.

About the time the screen went dark Naruto bit down on Sasuke neck and slammed into him as hard as he could. Sasuke dug his hands into the back of his lover, pulling the blanket around them taught, until he was scared he might break his ribs. As Naruto kept going Sasuke was forced to shove his hands together to prevent injuring Naruto who was busy trying to draw blood. Sasuke moaned in a semi-pain semi-pleasure mix that sent his nerves tingling. Naruto pulled away from his neck leaving it with a kiss and looked down at Sasuke who was smiling at him.

"I'm going to make you scream at some point." Naruto laughed in a devilish manner as his grip on Sasuke's waist tightened. He smiled and went down on the other side of Sasuke's neck continuing his quest to get something like a wail out of the Uchiha.

"I'm never going to scream. There is nothing you can… do…." Sasuke melted away into the fast yet steady rhythm Naruto was providing for the two of them. Sasuke moaned again and ignored his iPhone again as the ring tone went off. He realized about two seconds later he should have answered it when Itachi burst into the room not phased by the sight. They stopped, Naruto embarrassed and Sasuke pissed off. "There was a reason I wasn't picking up the phone, dumb ass."

"Well, I was trying to call and say that you needed to be ready to leave by the time I got here so we can head over to Sasori's. We have some things to talk about with him. Maybe you could have just stopped and answered your phone and I wouldn't have to just walk in."

"What about knocking?" Naruto asked. Itachi and Sasuke looked at each other mulling it over as they had before. After a moment of silence between the room they both drew the same conclusion.

"Brother privileges." They both answered from experience. Sasuke sighed and threw his head back on the bed, "But I don't want to go to that either. First the party now Sasori's, it's annoying. Can't you just go alone? I don't want to leave Naruto."

"He can come with us. Get dressed and be downstairs soon." Itachi turned around, the door slammed shut behind him cutting off a small breeze that was coming in from the hall. Naruto withdrew and fell over next to Sasuke. "Brother privileges? Man you should get a lock."

"Well, at least I get to drag you along." Sasuke tossed off the blanket and grabbed his clothes off the floor. He stopped thinking and smiled. "It'd be improper for us to go over smelling like sex, want to go take a quick shower with me?"

-(black bird)-

Sasuke and Naruto got out of Sasuke's Corvette when Itachi pulled up behind them. Having a Corvette, he refused to ride in what he called Itachi's 'beaten up piece-of-shit with wheels'. Itachi ignored his brother's selfishness for the moment and began walking up to Sasori's house with the boys in tow. He knocked and saw the door open to a sleep-draught boy. "You must be Gaara, is Sasori around?"

"Yeah, he's trying to learn how to use the new grill out back." Gaara lead the three silently through the living room and kitchen to the back porch where Sasori was still trying to hook up the propane line for the grill. "Uncle, you have visitors."

"Oh, thank you." Gaara nodded and made his way back to a tree in the back yard where he quickly scaled it silently. He could watch them from behind a cover of leaves and branches. Sasori quickly asked Itachi to fetch Deidara from his slumber. Itachi nodded and went back into the house. Sasori stopped and pointed to Sasuke's neck. "Did the bruises come about naturally or did you fall down the stairs?"

"No, Naruto…." Sasuke said and than just hummed another something. Sasori gave a small 'oh' and nodded. Naruto laughed a bit still embarrassed about the event. "So, that's your nephew?"

"Yea, he's a bit… people shy. He means well though… Damn grill! I can't get this thing… Huh?" Sasori watched as Naruto moved over kneeling next to the grill. Somewhat effortlessly he attached the line and sealed it. "Thank you, I've been trying to figure out where that went for the past ten minutes."

"No problem. I had to put Jiriaya's together." Naruto muttered. He looked over at the tree where Gaara sat and sighed. At that time Itachi emerged from the house with Deidara looking very pissed off. "He pulled my fucking hair!"

"I said I was sorry. Now, what are we discussing first?" Itachi asked Sasori as they all sat down in a little circle on the deck, except Naruto. Naruto began walking over to the tree.

"Well, first, Sasuke is _still_ signed up for his classes and the amount is paid for, and he already has the books. I expect you'll be coming to classes starting in two weeks?" Sasori asked. Sasuke nodded then turned to watch Naruto look up the tree. Itachi nudged Sasuke to attention. "Now, you two. How the Hell did you push this through without a trial? And secondly, why didn't you ask me, it's very presumptuous."

"Well, it needed to be done quickly, and at the time I learned Itachi was under investigation by the college due to Madara related incidents like the fire. I figured you would be okay with it since Sasuke is independent and such." Deidara said slowly and somewhat pitifully. "You'll get really good Christmas presents from him too, he has a lot of money."

"What are you talking about? I don't really celebrate Christmas." Sasuke inquired than cast a shimmer of a glance over at Naruto before looking at his brother. Itahci's lips curled in like he was thinking. "Well?"

"Sasori is your legal guardian now, and I am the executor of the estate until you are 18. However, we're just using Sasori as a scapegoat, you still have to listen to me." Itachi said and Sasuke frowned. "If you're not happy about it, you can find an actual guardian who will take you without your fortune."

"Deidara?" Sasuke asked pathetically as a long shot. Deidara shook his head and muttered 'no fucking way I'm watching a demon like you'. "I'll beat someone up for you, I can give you money. I'll stop threatening your life."

"Sasuke." Itachi slapped him hard on the back of the head. They were busy arguing about guardianship which distracted Gaara. He watched somewhat with an adgitated glare but did notice when the branch he was on shook a bit. Two hands appeared and hauled a blonde football player up into the tree. Naruto quickly brushed the leaves out of his hair and smiled. He stuck out his hand. "'Sup, I'm Naruto Uzumkai."

"Um…Hi." Gaara leaned towards him enough to shake his hand. Naruto shook his hand firmly and smiled bigger. They stopped and Gaara dropped his hand not knowing what to make of him until Naruto nearly slipped and than caught himself laughing. Gaara's concept of Naruto: He's a klutz. "I'm Gaara Kazekage."


	59. Back At School

**Look, I updated! I know it's getting to be a long time between updates so I'd like to apologize. I will be finishing on schedule in July, I should be able to put up another chapter maybe tomorrow, hopefully today sometime. No promises though. Please enjoy. Sincerely Aki

* * *

**

"Ahh…" Sasuke watched as Tsunade gently placed a wooden stick on his tongue. She flashed a light down quickly examining his throat. She sighed, pulled back and let him shut his mouth. Tsunade scratched her head. "What, is anything wrong?"

"No, but its weird how well you've healed." She said and opened the curtain to her office to let the morning sun shine in. "We've had several students who are the top of their class, irregular geniuses, look at your DNA. We've found no way to turn your eyes back to blue. If you still want them, I can get you contacts."

"No, I'll be fine. They don't bother me that much." Sasuke stood up of her desk and looked around. "So, you're in the old medical building for now? You did a fast job redecorating in two days."

"Agreed to give the students in Design 802 a 2% raise in grade to help, this is what they gave. You'd be surprised what 2% can do." She said smiling looking at her new cheerfully decorated office with donated supplies and decorations. She turned to Sasuke, "So, anything else. Weird headaches, strange food cravings?"

"Nope." Sasuke nodded to her and opened the door to see Naruto waiting outside playing a Game Boy. Sasuke shut the door, thanked Tsunade and smiled over at Naruto. He noticed and smiled back shutting the game off. "Where'd you get a Game Boy from? You didn't take that from the lost and found did you?"

"No, it's Gaara's. I borrowed it and Super Mario. I'm pretty good at it." Naruto said and shoved it in a pocket. "They're over moving Sasori into his new office. Want to come and help? I already said I would."

"I guess. But we have to leave in about an hour. I've missed way to much school lately." Sasuke muttered. He thought Madara's rules about school were strict, Itachi's was worse. _Unless you are vomiting or bleeding severely, neither of which are likely to happen, you can't miss a day of school or I'll cut you off from your money until I legally can't._ Sasuke thought it was completely unfair, but Itachi had also informed him that he wouldn't like it in the first place. Sasuke scuffed his feet as he remembered; Naruto noticed and quickly grabbed his hand claiming it. Sasuke looked up and smiled. "So, do you think anyone at school besides the Black Birds still likes me?"

"Who knows, but do you really need anyone besides us?" Naruto swung their joined hands playfully as they moved over to the science building. They went into the now empty-of-students main hall way and heard yelling from upstairs. The couple rolled their eyes as unsurprised they entered Madara's old office to see Deidara going off on Gaara, who instead of helping currently was sipping down his third coffee. "One he doesn't need that much caffeine, and two, he's just been sitting on the couch WE NEED TO MOVE for the past twenty minutes."

"That's funny because I've only been sitting here for the past two minutes. Obviously your sense of time has gone with your sense of patience." Gaara said slowly. He stopped and waited for a minute when he sniffed the air. Gaara turned to see Naruto and Sasuke in the doorway. "Do you two want to come and have a seat on the couch?"

"Sasuke, you're a bully, help me kick him off the couch so I can move it over there under the window. As soon as I get this moved I'm done for the day, but he…" Sasori sighed stopping Deidara's rant. "Hey, you said you'd give me fifty bucks to help you move in here, I'm trying."

"I said the couch can wait until later because it isn't that important, you're the one who's having a bother with it, Deidara. I'll pay you later, go wait to find out your bar examine results." Sasori ordered. Deidara began muttering under his breath as he left the room pushing past Naruto and Sasuke. "He's become so bitter lately. It'll do him well as a lawyer but not any good as a man."

"There are just people like that, remember how bitter my father was when he died? They do it when they're scared of something, like he was of his disease." Gaara muttered and stretched out over the couch. He looked back over at Naruto and Sasuke. "So hi."

"Hi. I've nearly finished the game but my timing turns to shit on this one level." Naruto said walking over and pulling out the game system. He sat down on the floor with the screen tilted so Gaara could observe. Sasuke watched this behavior closely than turned to Sasori to see him putting up an old picture of a past graduating class.

"I still haven't gotten my schedual, could you help me get that in a minute. I can't attend classes this summer if I don't know when and where they are." Sasuke said blatenly. Sasori smiled. "I take it I said something funny."

"I have yet to schedule the classes yet, as the new dean. Madara was supposed to do it the day we got him arrested. It's only four classes, I could it them into the same day. I'll sit down and make it out in a bit since I'm teaching two than Kisame is teaching two. You can come back after school and retrieve it." Sasori grabbed a large metal globe and put it up on the shelf. "I have an idea, why don't you two take Gaara around campus before school and show him College Row, he needs to get acquainted with the area."

"Sure. Come on, I'll show you all the places that sell coffee." Naruto said standing in attention. Sasuke snarled a bit, however Naruto gave the handheld back and grabbed his hand. Sasuke squeezed his grip and smiled at Naruto. "And Sasuke can show you all the places where people are scared of us."

"Naruto, that's not something YOU should be proud of. If anything you made us a loveable gang of troublemakers. It's killing my reputation." Sasuke picked in a friendly manner. He poked Naruto in the forehead and smiled.

-(black bird)-

"Do you like fishing?" Naruto asked Gaara who with a nonchalant shake of his head brought down another recreational activity. The blond was trying to think of something fun the three of them could do together with Sasuke's funding. "Not even deep sea?"

"No. Fish smell funny." Gaara muttered and whipped his reporting pencil out from his sleeve and gracefully dragged it against a brick building. The pencil let a thin, almost noticeable graphite line on the white between the layers. He wasn't even watching it as they turned around the building to the front entrance of West View high School.

"What about snowboarding?" Naruto asked quickly. Gaara mulled it over thinking of his experiences with surfing combined with cold snow and a lot of gear.

"No."

"Fencing, perhaps?" Sasuke muttered. Gaara stopped and looked at him, his pencil retracted back into his sleeve. He nodded; Sasuke smiled his red eyes upsetting Gaara somewhat. "You seem that you would."

"Yes, I've been fencing for a few years. How'd you tell?" His question came out as more of a challenge. Naruto saw them and took a step back if they started into anything. Sasuke instead kept quite clam.

"They way you move your wrist, it gives it away a bit like you handle a sword, however you don't seem the type to be RPing." Gaara look at how he held his wrist, it was unusual for someone to pick up on such a refined action. He snorted then took another drink of his coffee before tossing the drink away into a can. "Do you need assistance finding the office so you can get your schedule?"

"No thanks, I think I'll find my own way there. I'll see you after classes, as I take it your both going back to the college." Naruto interjected before Sasuke could and provoke their indifferences farther.

"Yep. We've got to pick up Sasuke's schedule and I've got to see Jiraiya about his new novel. I promised to give it to a friend." Naruto stepped fully in front of Sasuke and waved at Gaara who than bowed and took his leave of them. Naruto shuddered and began heading into the school, as the two of them. As they passed through the door Naruto placed his hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "I have a weird feeling you don't like each other."

"You'd be correct. Don't think on it Naruto, I'm pretty sure it's just because we're somewhat alike. Kakshi's coming up behind you." Sasuke said and quickly kissed Naruto on the cheek. He smiled and began down to his locker leaving his boyfriend stumped.

"What do you mean…?" Naruto felt a hand on his head and looked up to see the white-hair teacher looking down at him. He smiled and turned around hand still on his head. "Hey Kakashi! What's up?"

"Naruto! Just the person I was hoping to talk to!" Kakashi removed his hand and pulled out the baseball form. He handed it to Naruto and gave a thumbs up. "Listen Baseball tryouts are tonight at six, you're going to be here, right? I can't promise you a spot on the team if you don't show up."

"Don't worry I'll be there." Naruto said. He shoved the form away in the front pocke of his jeans and saluted. Smiling he began to remember the other things he had to do first. "I just have to stop by Jiraiya's, I'll get the money while I'm there and knock out the cost of the season if that's alright."

"That's fine, oh, and make sure you keep your eye on the ball this season, there's some freshman kid who can pitch over 80 miles per hour consistently. Keeps going around yelling about how he's the greatest, but he maybe, so step up your game since you may be practicing against him."

"Got it coach. See you… in class." Naruto gave him a thumbs up and Kakashi began to walk away he stopped and turned around scratching his head.

"Don't forget your story is due. Later." Kakashi disappeared in a crowed of seniors and left Naruto feeling useless.

"Shit… I forgot." Naruto stomped his foot, he kind of wished he was in the next hall way so he could slam his forehead into his locker or being so dumb. "How could I forget a 100 point assignment? I'm going to fail!"

Sasuke walked up behind him silently and moved as close to him as he could without touching him. Stilly he lowered a paper down in front of the blond until he heard a huh. Naruto took the paper that had his name on it and smiled. He then felt the hands of his lover wrap around his waist. "Thank me later, _mon petit renard._"

-(black bird)-

Suigetsu leaned against a wall and divulged into an article in the school news paper. Every now and than he would close his eyes and shake his head in disbelief at reading the paper and the article. "You need to get your head out of that newspaper and help me find Ino! She brought stuff for my hair."

"Moment, women, moment." He said not paying attention. Karin huffed angrily and stomped in her Converse hoping to get his attention it didn't work.

"There she is, never mind. INO!" Karin walked away and greeted Ino like they were the best of friends. They quickly began in aggressive talk about how the hair product should be used for best results.

"Uh-huh." Suigetsu said to himself not knowing that she had gone already. He turned the page for the last paragraph of the article and smiled.

"Suigetsu, what the Hell are you reading that so interesting?" Karin said coming back with a slim black bottle. Suigetsu tossed the paper in the trash, the headline 'HOW TO BECOME A BAD INFLUENCE' at the top.

"Nothing, just counting the number of time the word 'the' is used. So what's up?" He said wrapping an arm around her waist.

"Can you help me with this, it's to get the split ends." Karin asked with a giant pouting lip. She waited for a minute before Suigetsu sighed. Karin smiled knowing she won.

"Sure." He said taking the bottle to start reading the label. "Maybe you should give some to Itachi and Deidara, too."

-(black bird)-

"No, that's a huge problem. I can't, my mom would freak." Sakura said looking at Naruto and Sasuke during lunch. During second block Sasuke had made his final decision on what he was doing, he was going to move into the mansion and was going to have a mansion party on Friday. Itachi wasn't going to be told until last minute, Sasuke was going to lie about the funds saying he needed to redecorate with a couple thousand. "She watches the news and doesn't really trust the Uchiha name, I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I'll bring you some cookies on Saturday. I was going to make some and bring them. Plus we need to get rid of some of the cake." Naruto muttered. "But, if you can talk your mom into it, I'll be there, Ino will be there. You can bring Shino, it's not going to be that big, maybe twenty people."

"I've never liked crowds." Sasuke muttered dropping into the conversation. He had been busy observing Gaara with a small group of news editorial staff. Sasuke snorted a bit as Neji was going over the roughs for the next paper with him. Having two trained editors was going to improve quality on the school paper or destroy it over style and preferences. "I've got to get back to class, don't invite anyone until I get out, alright? I'm picky."

"So than… I made the short list? Cool. I may have to appeal to my mother than. I'll call you two later tonight to see if I can RSVP." Sakura said, she smiled and walked away to the small group of people at a table that just stared over at them.

"Can we invite Gaara? He doesn't have any friends besides us yet. It'd do him some good to meet people." Naruto said then gave Sasuke the biggest, saddest eyes he could. "Please?"

"Go, just don't make those eyes anymore. It's so sad." Sasuke said. He grabbed the back of Naruto's neck and pulled him into a kiss. Sasuke pulled back smiling like he does in bed. The Uchiha disappeared in a flash of black clothes and left the blonde alone. Naruto happily walked over to the tale and tapped Gaara on the shoulder. Gaara turned around somewhat surprised but smiled slightly. "Hey, Naruto."

"Sasuke and I are having a party on Friday, were moving into his mansion. You're coming right? It's going to be us, a few of the students, and a teacher or two."

"Yea, Jiraiya and Tsunade wanted me to be supervised. They're sending Kakashi to watch me." Naruto said scratching his head. "So are you coming?"

Gaara nodded.


	60. Baseball

**For note: _mon petit renard _ means _my little fox._ Fits Naruto doesn't it?**

"I think it's cute." Itachi said rubbing Sasuke's head with a loving smile. Sasuke had insisted that he come to Naruto's baseball games. All of them, even out of city. He had Itachi drive him forty-five minutes north to the neighboring school to see Naruto head off as team captain and best batter. They sat in the stand of the away team and watched as Lee took the plate as the first up on based with a large, unbeatable smile. "You came all this way just to watch him."

"Shut up." Sasuke said blushing. He peered down to the benches for the West View team, Naruto was busy focusing on the game. Sasuke had never seen him so driven in anything he had ever done. "It's weird how he's so into his little game. He does the same thing with his video games."

"I've found most men do that. It's either focused or oblivious. If you know which one they're in it can help with work. Use it against them and for you." Itachi finished his thought and looked over at Sasuke who was busy starring dreamily at Naruto completely oblivious. "So I was thinking about your funds."

"You leave my funds alone or I'll cover your bedroom with fresh steak and let it rot, _mon frere._" Sasuke smiled and stuck his tongue out at him.

"Are we interrupting sibling matters?" Sasori said sitting down behind them. Gaara and Temari were standing behind him, both in jeans and red sweaters. Both Itachi and Sasuke shook their heads as a strike was called. "So, came to watch Naruto?"

"Yea, we get to take him home afterwards. What are you doing all the way up here?" Sasuke asked Sasori. Another strike was called against Lee. "Waste of gas for just a baseball game." 34

"My nephew is pitcher." Sasori said pointing out to the mound. Kankuro straightened his hat before he threw the third strike for Lee. "He's good at sports, go figure. Oh, Sasuke, Itachi this is my niece Temari, she'll be a sophomore next year at the college."

"Hi, interior design and decoration." Temari said waving.

"Grad, global communications and travel." Itachi said and shook her hand quickly. She moved to Sasuke. "College or high school?"

"Both. Genetics, I'll be starting this summer." Sasuke said. Itachi winced a bit but turned his head back to the game to hit Sasuke on the shoulder. Naruto had climbed out onto the plate and was scratching his feet on the dirt. Sasuke stood up and whistled. "NARUTO, HIT THE DAMN BALL THIS TIME!"

"YOU SHUT UP! I KNOW HOW TO USE THIS THING!" Naruto screamed shaking the bat at Sasuke. The Uchiha's began laughing and Sasuke sat down to watch Naruto. He was gritting his teeth as the ball came at him. Naruto swung and hit straight on it. The ball hit the back fence and Naruto began around the bases.

"I've found that if you upset him, his performance becomes better." Sasuke said smiling at Itachi. Itachi looked at him confused at the words for a minute then muttered 'oh my god, did you just tell me that.' Sasuke just laughed more until Sasori's head also went down understanding where Sasuke learned that from. Naruto ran into the bench and got a team-full of high fives and 'good jobs' for his hit.

A bouncy little freshman named Konohamaru stepped up in the celebration. Kankuro a little unnerved gritted his teeth as well and threw a hard cure ball that went straight into the catcher's glove. A strike was called and the ball returned. "This is the kid Naruto was telling me about, watch."

Kankuro got the motion to send the same pitch and reeled back on one leg before unleashing it. Konohamaru swung and hit the ball sending it right by Kankuro's head. It flung out and landed on the field before the wall. He sprinted to first and held there.

"You're team's really good. How much do they practice?" Gaara asked Sasuke. Sasuke smiled. "What, four times a week? Five?"

"They practice everyday, in morning and night. It really sucks. He comes home dead every day, the only time he isn't tired is Sunday morning, due to half the team being gone at church." Sasuke muttered upset at the team. He pulled a cigarette and a lighter out and lit the stick up in his mouth. "He really loves it though. He really does."

Itachi hit Sasuke upside the head for the lighting up on a school grounds. He shook his head as Sasuke ignored him. "As you can tell he has separation anxiety."

"You two are dating? How cute! You know, one of my ex-boyfriends used to be a baseball player, someone hit a ball right into his right arm, shattered one of his bones. He wasn't able to play again, that doesn't mean you can turn into an emo bitch though."

Gaara began laughing, "So that's why you dumped him. I wasn't paying much attention at the time. And to think, he actually loved you."

Temari smiled and then stopped with a serious face. "He did? Shit!"

-(black bird)-

Naruto showed off the winning ball he hit to Sasuke smiling like an idiot. Sasuke just patted him on the head with a sincere smile and kissed him on the forehead. "Luckily, we only have two more months of this. I miss you being home, the mansion gets to lonely with you out training."

Sasuke sat down in a red velvet chair next to the fire place he started with a fireplace. He watched as Naruto set his winning baseball down on the mantel displacing some collected dust. "Ta-da. A lovely new tropthy, though, it doesn't go with your and Itachi's fighting trophies."

"It looks amazing." Sasuke said and extended his arms. Naruto sat down and they stared at it. "Not we just have to decorate the rest of the house. We have the kitchen, and the study, and the office, and the dining room, and our bedroom, and the guest bedrooms, and the backyard."

"The list just goes on and on. The den's done, isn't that enough?" Sasuke shrugged as he locked an arm around Naruto's waist. "I mean, one day per room is pretty good."

"If Itachi just gave me some funds the house would have been done by now, but no, he's got to be a prick about my money. I hate it when he does that." Sasuke sat there silently and then sighed. "I have to get an idea somewhere. There's got to be more money somewhere."

-(black bird)-

"You have a visitor." The guard rasped annoyed as he looked in the cage that held Madara Uchiha. Madara sat up from his shadowy darkness, the light gleamed off his mask which hid his curious smile. The guard unlocked the door to his cell and stepped back while Madara stood up and was lead to a small glass housing with just two chairs and a small table.

"A visitor? Oh good, I have been rather bored." He sat down and waited for a minute hoping to see someone like Hidan, Kakuzu, or even Konan, he however saw a spitting image of himself walk in and raise his arms to be checked for anything on his person which might let Madara escape again. Sasuke was allowed to lower his arms and enter the glass chamber without his shoes on. He sat down the the chair and raised an arm to wave childishly. "You?"

"Yea, your assets, how much will your yacht sell for?" sasuke asked pulling out a notepad and a pencil. He licked the tip of the graphite and set it down to the paper waiting for a response.

Madara sighed and put a hand to his mask more disappointed then upset. "My yacht? Really, kid. Don't sell Akatsuki! Why do you need money that badly, Sasuke. My yacht is specially customized, I bet you didn't even find them secret compartment under the bow. You haven't even been on it!"

"What secret compartment?" Sasuke asked scribbling down 'Yacht has secret compartment under bow.' He then licked the tip again and looked over at his uncle in his orange jumpsuit. "What's in it? Cash or jewels?"

"I keep a stash of fifty thousand there, the woods false, and the money's in one of those vacuum bags. Why do you need the money, Sasuke?" Madara asked sitting foreword, placing his cuffed hands on the table. He leaned foreword adn waited for a response. "Are we in some trouble, Sasuke?"

Sasuke then sighed agrivated and turned to Madara acting fully like a teenager. "No, I'm redoing the backyard and Itachi will only give me a thousand a week. Do you know how much of this week's money went to fixing the cracks in the pool? All of it." Sasuke laid his head ont he table adn groaned loudly cursing his brother's stinginess under his breath.

Madara sat back and scratched his head thinking of what to say to Sasuke. "That's a bitch."

"I know, and I still have to set aside for food and the car. At least he's paying for the electric and water." Sasuke sat back up and tried to regain his normal calm. He than scribbled down the information about the fifty thousand and shoved it away in his pocket. He stretched a bit and than looked at the guard, he wasn't paying attention. "Well, I've got fifty-thousand now. He took away the black credit card and cut it up than closed the account. Do you know how awesome it would be to say at school than I have a black credit card...? He's taking all the fun away from being a rich snotty brat."

"Better then nothing. It could be way worse." Madara pointed out carefully. "He's always been one of those 'work to earn' people. Never did like should be lucky he's letting you live in the mansion. If it would have been left to him, he would have sold it. So, what color did you paint it?"

"Blue, with white windows and I've been thinking of doing some stone work at the bottom and replacing the house path with stone as well. I also moved the giant bear you bought into the foyer, it sceams manly, and scares Deidara." Madara smiled and laughed at that as Sasuke stood up. "Well, he's good for learning responsibility. Thanks for the heads up, enjoy your time."

"That's it?" Madara asked looking up at him as he shoved the chair in. He was expecting something larger then Sasuke just running out of money to risk being seen with his criminal uncle. Obviously Madara should have seen this coming with Itachi as executor. "Nothing else? No how's prision going?"

"Oh, and good luck, hope you get death penalty and all." Sasuke smiled and turned around and had grabbed the door handle when Madara spoke up.

"Sasuke, one last thing. I've uncovered a threat to you." Sasuke stopped and dropped the handle to the door he turned around, pulled the chair back out and sat down. "Intrested?"

"Does he have red hair, 'cause I've just had this creeping suspicion." Sasuke whispered in a dark tone.

"Uchiha have inated senses toward our enemies, something being soft gets rid of that sense."

-(black bird)-

Naruto had just sat up out of bed when he saw the note Sasuke left on the side table. He rolled over to it from the lavishly large bed and read 'Hey-went to go get some money-watch for a package arriving soon from France-it's coffee. Love Sasuke.' Naruto set it down and looked over at the clock. "It's noon! I need to stop sleeping in!"

Naruto fell out of the bed and grabbed his pants. He than looked over to the calender, it was Sunday. Naruto calmed down. 'Great i've got practice at three.' He sighed and walked out into the kitchen where the leftovers of Sasuke's cooking were left, partof burnt egg and paritally bit into toast that was now soggy. Naruto just shrugged and took the toast in his mouth and began chewing on it.

He heard the doorbell and began down the hall to open the door. Itachi stood there with a large box reading 'cafe : coffee.' "I brought over Sasuke's coffee. It came yesterday. Is he here?"

"He went out. Not sure where." Naruto said and caught the toast as it fell from his mouth. He put it back in and let Itachi enter the building. Naruto sat down on the grizly bear's stand and finished the toast as he was waking up. Itachi set the box down on the side table and looked over at Naruto. "Has he been working on the house by himself? He's really doing a good job."

"Yea, as soon as baseball's over I'll be able to help him some, but yea. He just needs to learn how to cook now." Naruto sighed and scratched his head. He sat back reclining on the bear's leg and stared ahead. "He burnt half his breakfast this morning. He uses to much heat, not enough time."

"He's very self-gratifying. Tell him when he gets home, he needs to call me." Itachi bowed slightly and drifted like a ghost out the door.


	61. Sunrise

**Only two chapters after this!**

The morning sun shown through a pair of glass doors that lead to an immense tan balcony. It was empty with the leaves of plants outside shining in through the doors. The room was completely lit by the sun. It revealed the tan carpets with a couple shirts and a couple pairs of pants tossed gingerly about and two large duffle bags full of souvenirs they had yet to take home. On a deep red chair in the corner was a bag containing three large kangaroo pelts which were painstakingly hand picked to go into the mansion.

The room stayed silent besides the small rustling on the sheets when Naruto turned over sheltering his face from the bright Australian sun. Instinctively he grabbed the nearest unused pillow from off of Sasuke's face and pulled it over his. He piled his hands on it and quickly went back to sleep; a little drool coming out of the corner of his mouth.

The sun hit Sasuke's face and one bright red eye popped open to see what had happened to his cover. He turned to Naruto, sighed, than smiled. He wasn't going to snatch the pillow back yet, he figured he'd let Naruto sleep for at least a couple minutes peacefully. Sasuke rolled closer to his lover and shoved his face under the side of the pillow gaining some darkness. With in a few seconds he was passed back out.

Minutes passed and there was a loud bang in the room next to them. Behind the wall Suigetsu had just fallen out of bed with a loud thud after thinking there was a wild humpback whale next to him that was going to let him ride for krill. He woke with a giant headache as Karin sat up somewhat surprised and then noticed what had happened. "You keep falling out of beds. We need to get railing."

"Yea, probably…" He muttered. Slowly he sat up and crawled on his arms back into bed under the sheets. A little lump formed as Suigetsu's body curled back up into his normal sleeping ball. Karin smiled and crashed back down on the bed. She turned her head and saw little Karin in her traveling cage sleeping comfortably in a small purple tube.

-(black bird)-

Itachi was still grumbling, he did stop for a while, however he had picked up the habit again after Deidara had began to pick up everything he could about any explosions or fireworks in the Sydney area. Explaining that Itachi had come here to finish his studies was going over well as Deidara had barely passed his bar and was glad to have vacation time, though he didn't want to go around alone, fearing guys would hit on him. "Get a hair cut or grow facial hair. I'm tried of listening to you complain."

Itachi had snapped at him several times in the small café in the lobby of their large hotel. He was still somewhat pissed Sasuke had elected everyone to come along so they can go rampaging through Austraila, but he was sure they didn't need grandeur as well. He was rather hoping to stay at a bed and breakfast and interact at a home level with the residents. Sasuke wanted an ocean view and he was paying. Itachi took a sip of his coffee and stared out into the foyer wondering why he had to put up with this from his little brother. "You should be lucky Sasuke invited you, I thought he hated you."

"Me too, it's weird. He's threatened to kill me nine times in the past week, maybe that's a thing of friendship." Deidara thought as he stirred the last of his mocha. He watched it for a minute convincing himself that was it until Itachi brought his idea crashing to the ground.

"Nope, that's hate. He probably just wanted to annoy me for not giving him a larger allowance." Itachi sipped at his tea while Deidara huffed and crossed his arms not believing the Uchiha's thought process.

"He would spend close to five grand just to annoy you?" Deidara asked. He glared at Itahci who remained perfectly calm and took another sip of his coffee. "Like he would really REALLY do that, just to annoy you."

"Yes, without a second thought. He's spoiled if you can't tell." Deidara's head crashed to the table upset at that point. Itachi just shrugged and continued sipping his drink and observing people in the lobby, most of them on vacation or work related visits. He was completely unaware of his companion's distress at what he would label as 'a simple matter.'

-(black bird)-

Kisame had passed out on his couch with the Jaws menu repeating on his television. He had a bucket of popcorn on his stomach that had tilted over when he had. There was no other noise then the infamous Jaws theme in a low volume until the home phone started going off. After a few seconds he stirred; one of his arms flung to the floor and grabbed the piece of black plastic and answered it. "Hello… I'm sorry, Itachi's out of the country until tomorrow night. Huh, this is Kisame Hoshigaki's residence, yes."

Kisame sat up brushing the popcorn off as he grabbed the remote turning the system off. He listened intently for a minute and bit down on his lip. He took a deep breath and calmed down. "And when did this happen?"

He listened more and things began to fall into place. Kisame shook his head. "Yes, I'll pass the message on immediately, thank you." Kisame pressed the button to hand up the phone and quickly broke it against the opposite wall. He pulled his cell phone from pocket and began dialing.

-(black bird)-

"He does hate me." Deidara slammed his head back down continuously before Itachi shoved his new side bag under his head to quiet the blows. Deidara looked up at him confused. "So you don't hate me."

"No, I hate you, but you're making too much noise, I'm trying to observe people. Please keep it down." Itachi said and turned with his back to the wall, arms holding coffee at his chest level just starring out into the lobby. He sipped every now and than just glaring out at the people. "They have great customer service, I've noticed this at all this hotel's spaces. I'm thinking I might include this in the paper. I especially like…"

"You're so boring." Deidara grabbed Itachi's leather travel bag and curled up on it. He lay still for a minute before he started humming something dark and dreary for not apparent reason the tune got caught in Itachi's head until he recognized it as the Funeral March. Itachi grabbed his bag from Deidara causing him to slammed his head on the table. Itachi dug though his bag and pulled out his phone answering it quickly. "Kisame, I imagined you'd be passed out right now… It's four AM back ho… Well do you have any good news?"

"What's that look for? Did something happen." Itachi gave Deidara the 'a minute' finger like he was a child and waited patiently hearing everything. "Yea, we'll be home on time. Just… Did you call… Alright, yea. It'd be a good idea to tell Senju. Nope, they're not. Yes Suigetsu is behaving, no, he's sharring a room with Sasuke. Yea, I made sure."

"You know Naruto and Suigetsu just jumped the balconies when the doors closed, liar." Deidara stuck out his tongue, Itachi noticed and shoved him on the forehead, it pushed him back a bit and he had to grab the table to stop from falling. "I hate you."

"That's nice." Itachi whispered covering the phone for a second. "Yes, alright. I'll see if I can wake them up. Keep in touch. Bye."

"So, what's so interesting that…? HEY! I'm talking here!" Deidara called after Itachi who quickly hurried over to the elevator and pressed the up button. He waited a minute and the doors opened to the dark stained wood with gilded framework. Getting on he pressed 27 and stood against the back of the elevator alone with the silence of the machinery. He watched the levels pass quietly through the two blue tinted window slits; he bit his lip thinking going that far away from home was suddenly a bad idea.

The elevator stopped and with a small chime the doors slid open. Itachi stood up and moved silently while he dipped one on his hands into his back pocket to produce the room keys. He filed through them until he pulled out 278A and approached the matching door. Itachi shoved it in the lock and entered the room silently. As he hovered over the bed where Sasuke and Naruto slept silently he tossed around how exactly to inform his little brother what had happened.

Itachi sighed and found that he was best at subtlety. He tapped Sasuke on his Hawk tattoo twice. "Sasuke." He whispered lightly followed by two more taps. "Sasuke." The brunette turned over and lifted his head. He cracked an eye open and grunted. "Hey, um… Madara escaped from..."

"Oh, that's nice; I'll send a fruit basket." Sasuke said half out of it and laid back down. He took a second in his head at first he had heard: "Madara released doves." He then realized that was stupid. Madara wouldn't release doves, he's in prison. He then got the actual message. Sasuke bolted up and looked at Itachi. He looked down at the nearly dead asleep Naruto and softly crawled out of bed grabbing his boxers from the floor. "What do you mean he escaped from fuckin' prison. They had him in solitary… I bet Orochimaru's behind this."

"Why would you think that? Orochimaru's been on edge with Madara ever since he shot him." Itachi whispered and they walked out onto the balcony letting Naruto finish his sleep. "I highly doubt…"

"A couple of months ago Nagato started reporting to me on what Orochimaru does so you could focus on your work. He's been courting them, and with out a doubt Madara as well. Nagato says he's now trying to take his revenge on 9 since the formula he gave me that was incomplete was meant for him. It was meant to kill him, that's why he has been wanting their help." Sasuke said and Itachi just watched his little brother carefully. "However, we have Nagato and Konan and can insert little mistakes into whatever they do, an accidental 'I forgot something' can really mess up a plan. It's why they been so inactive lately."

"Okay, just, next time you speak with Nagato, have them delay them as much as possible." Itachi opened the door to the room and walked through in his head mulling things over. '_God damn it, mon __frère__ is involved too heavily. Far too heavily._'

-(black bird)-

Kisame simply picked the lock and walked into the empty house knowing exactly where he was going. He went around the couch and was just about to pass by the kitchen when he felt a cool set of prongs on his neck. "Move and it goes into your throat."

"Um…" Kisame was suddenly scared he had walked in on a home invasion. The light flipped on and Gaara stood there with a large fork held up to him. He had a coffee in the other hand with a bunch of sticky notes stuck to his hat. "Oh, hey pipsqueak, you shouldn't drink so much coffee. I have to go bug your uncle now. Byebye."

Kisame move the fork away, patted Gaara on the head moved on down to Sasori's room where he barged in and suddenly began screaming everything that had happened over the barely alert man. Gaara cranked his head around the corner and caught the entire conversation but was still left with the lingering thought: '_I'm not a pipsqueak. I'm not.'_


	62. Discovery

Madara sat in his cell alone and miserable. He was to the point of wishing he would die soon, he was bored with nothing to do all day but some Sudoku puzzles and the newspaper to read. The tabloids he got every other day had stopped mentioning his name which pissed him off to some degree. If he was going to be miserable, he should at least be famous. After all, it's not every day there's a killer like he was.

He looked out the cell to the illuminated clock some fifty feet away in free space. He scratched his chin. 'I wonder why the guards late. I hope they didn't catch him smuggling magazines in to me. He'll get punished for that. I'm supposed to be kept bored until my hearing tomorrow.'

He turned and checked the pictures he had been collecting of himself, he looked good in most magazines until they began taking shots of him with his mask on. He would have preferred if they just kept showing how nice of a face he had, he rather liked his old face.

_Step._

'_Oh good, Charile's coming back.' _ Madara said hearing the footstep on the cold concrete outside of his cell. He sat foreword and straightened himself up. There was no reason to look bad for someone he would consider a friend.

_Step. Step._

'_I hope he brought me _People_, I so love to read that magazine_.' Madara noted in his head. He had gotten two picture of himself out of there. They were just brief mentions of him, but he was still in his favorite publishing.

_Step. _As Madara looked out his bars he saw the pale man he once called 'colleague' slid in the light and look over at him. Orochimaru smiled as he laughed at Madara's misfortune of being locked up. "I think the orange jump suit rather suits you, along with the mask, you can't tell you're over…"

"What are you doing here? And where is Charlie with my magazines?"

"You sound like a cranky old man; maybe I should just kill you. The only good you do is leadership, and I think I can carry _that_ out, unlike you." Orochimaru laughed again and saw a chair a few feet away. He grabbed it, spun the metal folding chair and sat down leaning his arms on the back of it. "How did it feel getting betrayed by your only family in the world, Madara. I imagine it stings."

"You're an asshole, you know that. So, are you here to spring me or what, I'm bored." Madara said getting to the point. He quickly sat back and began examining his nails like he was highly guarded against Orochimaru's words. "Well?"

"Fine be that way, I just thought maybe you'd like to hear what I had to say before I make my decision to free you or not." Orochimaru said. "You see, 9 set a trap for me in the serum that I gave Sasuke. It would have straight on killed me, and not just changed me. Two serums acting against each other, they'll fight for dominance. It's not fun. I want to kill 9."

"You are going to kill yourself." Madara said almost in tune. "Why not just kill superman, it would be so much easier. All you have to do is stab him with Kyrptonite."

"So fun, as always. Now, spring you, or watch you rot in your prison?" Orochimaru asked wondering if he might actually stay in prison. He seemed to be enjoying having a lot of time to himself. "Time's ticking away Madara, I don't have all day you know."

"It's up to you, I'm perfectly fine here. However, how good are you at watching your back? I think it'd be rather hilarious to watch 9 just come up behind you and rip your head off." Madara said. Orochimaru's hand slipped in a pocket and pulled out a key ring. Slowly he stuck the key in the lock; it clicked echoing through the room then the door opened without a noise. "I thought that was a good point too."

"Well, pack your things; your men are waiting for you. I've already gathered them at my side base." Orochimaru said. He smiled and dropped the key to the floor. Madara picked up one of yesterday's magazine and followed Orochimaru out of the hall and to the outside world. There was parked an old car in white too. Madara stopped and sighed. "I feel an eighties motif with you. The suit, the car, it's just a little creepy."

"Sorry, would a Model T be more to your age group?" Madara flipped him off and got in the passenger seat. He buckled and dug into his magazine grumbling away at nothing. Orochimaru ignored his behavior as something a 'senile old man would do' and got into the driver's seat. He started the car and took off. "So, how was prison?"

"Fine." Madara huffed. He turned the page to see who was pregnant this month and found an interesting article on weird baby names. He was induldged in it for ten minutes when the car stopped. Madara looked over to a nice building in the middle of nowhere. "This is your hideout? Seriously? It looks like Ma and Pa would come strolling out."

"If you don't like the country I'm sure with that face you could rent a hotel room."

"You're an asshole." Madara rolled his magazine up under his arm and walked straight into the house. He found Kakuzu and Hidan smoking cigars on a couch, Nagato and Konan were cuddled into a corner talking in whispers. "So, you're all that's left. Oh goody."

"Stop being picky, or we'll leave." Kakuzu threatened. "And you know we will. It's bad enough there are wanted posters of us everywhere, but a few of my black market contacts refuse to meet with me as I'm wanted for three hundred and ninety-seven counts of conspiracy to commit murder, manslaughter and kidnapping. You killed my business. You just had to piss off Itachi."

"Quit yer bitchin'." Hidan said and punched him in the face. "I think it's nice to have you back…. Now I can kill more people!"

"We are not here to kill more people, we are here for the sole purpose of saving me, and possibly you all." Orochimaru said and took a seat in the large leather chair he moved from his house before setting it on fire. He rang a bell and Kabuto quickly brought in a tea tray for him. "Tea Madara?"

"Coffee, preferably." Madara said and looked over at Hidan and nodded his head. He quickly got up letting Madara take his place. Hidan moved next to Nagato, when noticed he smiled and waved in a friendly manned, they than noticed Madara. "So, how's things going?"

"Well, none of us are behind bars anymore." Nagato noted. Konan nodded and added, "Orochimaru's lab is more for genetics which is a huge improvement."

"And, he has a stash of Cuban cigars." Hidan said and opened his jacket showing a row of them on the inside. He smiled as the jacket fell against his shirt and he patted them to his chest. "Let's face it, it's a lot better than meeting in a tiny office."

"So, what's our first order of business?" Orochimaru asked. He crossed his legs and took a sip of his tea. Nagato raised his head quickly: "Konan's going on a little vacation, aren't you?"

Konan looked over at Nagato and nodded solemn in tone. "I'll bring back a lead on 9."

-(black bird)-

The sun was scorching as the young woman walked casually down the streets of Santa Fe and wandered into an ethnic looking bar. Without much hesitation, Konan sat down on a stool and waited for a few seconds until the bar tender noticed how she was barely dressed and sweating. "Not from around here, kitten?"

"Just thought it wasn't supposed to be this hot." Konan grabbed her black hand person and opened it to pull out an old photo with several people in it. "I'm looking for this man. This is about eighteen years old, but he should still resemble…"

"That asshole, racked up a five-hundred dollar tab and skipped town. You a bounty hunter?" Konan wasn't and was simply on research but was afraid her lead would be lost. She smiled whimsically and nodded. "I heard he skipped for some town in Mexico, chasing some idiot who thinks he's immortal, it's all he talked about. He mention Guadalajara, Veracruz and Colima. I'd chase his ass down but it would just cost me more money, but you go and get me his tab and I'll give you half."

"Thank you, you've been very helpful." Konan laid a twenty dollar bill on the table, reached behind the counter grabbing a drink and waved as she danced away back out onto the street. She took a few steps and disappeared down an alley. She leaned against the adobe pub and grasped for her cell phone. She dialed Nagato and shifted nervously in her heels. "Mexico, three cities, do you want me to persue him?"

"No, come home, I know exactly where he is, you won't fuckin' believe this." Nagato said and there was a pause, "Google maps caught him on camera in Veracruz three days ago."

"That's one of the cities. Apparently he's a drunk now, an expensive one who leaves behind a five hundred tab." Konan stomped her foot in the dust and sighed. "Why aren't we going after him? We can just go down there, I'll bar hop."

"Minato was accompanied by 9. It's too dangerous; he may not even be alive anymore."

Konan stopped. "If that's true, were stuck. Namikaze was our lead to 9."

"He's done that. We now 9's still hiding in Mexico, he can however show up anywhere, get back here."

"Right." Konan slammed the phone shut and opened the drink taking some of it. She slammed her head back against the wall. "There goes our research."

-(Black Bird)-

Jiraiya sat there and rubbed his old hand along his face trying to think. Tsunade wasn't making it any easier, she was pacing. "I know, but he knows who he is."

"Naruto thinks Minato is dead, by looks of it, he's not doing so well. Maybe it'll be better if he just keeps thinking that. Who knows what Minato is like, it could be harmful to Naruto, and he's been through a lot lately." Jiraiya said and looked once more at the screen. "You don't think I want to see him, he was like my son."

"I know, but Naruto has a right to know. It's his father!"

"And I'm his guardian!" Jiraiya slammed his fist on the table. Tsunade stopped and stared at him. "Naruto is going into his senior year soon, that's a lot of pressure then to hear your father is wandering around somewhere in Mexico when his lover can easily provide the money to start a search. I forbid you to tell him."

"Fine." Tsunade opened the door to Jiraiya's office and walked out , the door slammed loudly as she left. Jiraiya right-clicked the picture and deleted it. His head hung and he remained quiet, the warm sunshine beaming down on him until he felt something hit him on the back of the head. A football fell down besides him. A second later Naruto was suspended from the window frame and grabbed the ball. "I didn't rattle your brain any, did I?"

"No. It's fine." Jiraiya said waving the hit off. He laughed and smiled.

"To bad, I was hoping it would start working."

"That sounds… Hey!" Naruto leapt from the window and ran a few feet to pitch the ball at Gaara who caught it and quickly passed it off to Shikamaru. Jiraiya looked outside and sighed watching the squad of boys playing ball with each other. Jiraiya shook his head and closed his window.


	63. Tequila

'_I hate words. Words make me depressed. Not, it's not the words. Words are meaningless by themselves, it is the context. I hate context. Shit… without context I can't express my hatred for context. It's invalid again…' _ He sighed.

Light streamed in under the corral styled door; he was unaware it had turned to morning. The bar was open twenty four hours, the night shift covered by young women with large breasts who each had two personal bouncers. Of course, they just let him behind the counter by now. He had twice saved each dancer and saved the bouncer's hides several times when they were in over their heads. He didn't like it.

'_I hate… I hate that I can't express myself. Ugh! I just expressed myself. Details, I hate that I can't go into detail… I'm going to go into detail.'_ The bottle hit his lips. He had been drinking it since last night. After a barmaid brought him a new bottle, they had a small talk. She said he should write home, someone might still love him. He told her the only person he cares about wouldn't care about him.

'_I hate drinking.' _ He took another swig and pressed the pencil to the paper and wrote: **I don't know where you live otherwise I would write you a letter everyday, and if I knew the address to the afterlife I would write Tomato a letter everyday too.** **Sincerely Minato.**

'_I'm invalid. What am I still doing here? I could be in some nice warm dirt.' _Minato grabbed the bottle once more only to find it stopped by one of the bouncers. He didn't say anything, only nodded to a man standing across the bar. He looked calmly, skin pale and accented by large red hair separated into tails. With the large black scars surrounding the eyes he was unmistakable. "Bring him over, tell him he can have anything in the bar, and give it to him on the house, and make sure you address him as 'Sir.' He likes it."

"Alright." Grumble the man soberly. He walked over, offered and grabbed what looked like ancient tequila. The man took the bottle and walked over. He pulled out the cork with his sharp teeth and spat it at Minato's feet. "Free drinks, not trying to hit on me are you. Sixteen years for a date?"

"Fuck you 9. You know Kushina was the only person I loved, and why I chased after you… but it's far too late now. I got caught up in a chase, luckily, the booze helps me through my civic duties." Minato said and pressed the bottle to his lips and took several chugs. "Rum, yours?"

"Tequila, 1850. It's the best."

"You'll end up puking."

"I'm 9."

"Oh, I forgot." Minato said. He was trying to be a pest and by 9's expression, he was.

"You forget a lot of things. So, I'm here to start your intervention. Your going to monitor someone for me, and in return, I'll give you a life and then I'll give you what you wished you had."

"For my third wish, can I get a beach bungalow? You know, it can be simple. One room, hammock, five acre vineyard."

"When was the last time you were sober?"

"Ask…" Minato waved his arm around in the old Hawiian shirt until he found a strong looking man talking up some college girls. "Ask Pedro, he'd know. I think it was last Wednesday."

"You are a disgrace, Minato." Minato laughed heartily. He stopped abruptly and saw that 9 was serious. It caused him to start back up again. "This is no joke."

"I thought you enjoyed chaos."

"I did, until Orochimaru started spreading around my serums. Right now I understand that there are two people running around with bodies they weren't meant to have. This is why I need you."

"Why me, Orochimaru had plenty of students." Minato argued getting upset. "Why should I help you at all? I asked for your help a week before Kush died! I wanted to learn and you don't show up until now! So, fuck you and get out of my bar."

"I am 9. Shut up and listen to me. You will sober up. You will under go training and you will get a new body. I will than locate you to monitor Sasuke Uchiha."

"Why?"

"He's your son's friend." 9 stood up and took a quick drink of the bottle then guzzled the rest like it was water. He set the bottle down. There was patience while the man was kept waiting. Minato set the bottle down and stood up. "I can give you your life back."

"Pay the bar men a couple thousand. My place is a few blocks from here." Minato walked past nine with a bit of a tilt to him. His walk staggered each drunken step out into the sunlight. 9 sighed and tossed a roll of bills at one of the girls; he walked out and had to help Minato back up. "I just didn't see that sign post."

"I know, come on." 9 said sympathetically.

**FIN**

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Thanks to everyone who read and commented on Black Bird! It's gotten 80 Alerts, 97 favs and well over a hundred reviews before I posted this chapter! I couldn't have done this without the great reviews I've gotten, comments on what needs to be changed and if FF messed up the end of my chapter somehow and I missed it.

I am also excited to say that possibly in a weeks time, Black Bird will be formatted for the eReader for reading on the go! When this is done I will post the news and formatting on my profile along with how to get it, formatting is better than the android app, bigger letters.

Black Bird: Retribution, the sequel will be coming shortly, but possibly not on a weekly basis. More updates on this will follow soon as well. If you already know you want to read this as well you can alert me or wait, September 20th is the first chapters release no matter what. Have a great break and I expect to see you in the continuation.


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